Crysis Witches
by Marsdog
Summary: After finding a crashed plane the witches are sent into a future New York where the city is empty filled with the dead, aliens and the evil C.E.L.L hunting the witches. A soldier wearing incredible armour showing up all over the city my be the only ally they have in this falling city.
1. Chapter 1

It was the start of an new day on the base of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing Base, the sun was just rising over the horizon warming the cold ground that's covered in the first frost of winter. Every member except three were still in bed, Sanya was just flying into the hanger after finishing her night patrol, Sakamoto was outside training with her katana while she try's to control her bodies shaking caused by the coldness of the air and her growing fear of the rate she's losing her magic finally Minna's stood behind Sakamoto with a thick winters coat in one had and a tray holding two cups of war tea in the others trying to get her friend to stop training before she catches hypothermia and trying to comfort her friend in her time of need.

Minna has so far failed in her attempts to calm and stop the Major who continue to insist that she'll still be able to fight if she trains hard enough, so she's be spending her time half begging her friend and half watching the raising sun. As much as Minna wants to only focus on Sakamoto she finds herself unable to take her eyes of the rising sun which light up the sky in the most orange glow she has ever seen and the reflected sun in the water makes the calm clear water sparkle. The sight of the sun rising warms Minna's heart more then the tea on her tray ever could.

"Come on Mio you will only make yourself sick if you keep training like..." Minna says as she quickly snaps her attention back onto the Major but her heart almost stops when she see's Sakamoto now kneeling on the ground with her hands gripping her katana so tightly that her knuckles have turned white. "Mio are you ok?"

"I'm ok Minna" Sakamoto replies struggling to get to her feet. Now it's clear how tired she really if, she can't even stand without leaning on her Katana for support and she is covered in so much sweat that its hard to find a spot where she isn't drenched in sweat. "I just need a quick break before I get back to training"

"No you need to rest Mio" Minna says as she calmly walks over to her friend while she tries to not let her concerns and worries show on her face. "Come inside and have some tea before you catch a cold"

"No I'm fine I can keep going" Mio protests as she stops leaning on her Katana to prove her point, she manages to stand on her own but she is still clearly not fine. "I just need a quick break"

"No come on Mio come back inside with me before you collapse" Minna says almost sounding like she's ordering Sakamoto inside.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile in her room Perrine has awoken from a pleasant dream where she was on a date with her beloved Sakamoto and was staring at her two commanders from her bedroom window. She woke up and spotted Minna and Sakamoto out of her bedroom window just as the Major stood up using her katana for support and insistently she was overwhelmed with worry because the way she saw it was that Sakamoto was working her way to an early grave with the amount she pushes herself.<p>

"Oh Major please be alright" Perrine quietly whispers to herself as she watches Minna guide the tired Sakamoto back inside causing feelings of jealousy to bubble up inside her at the sight of Minna's arm around the Majors shoulder. "Why can't that be me helping you back?"

"Helping who back?" Someone quietly whispers in her ear.

"Major Sakamoto of... ah!" Perrine suddenly jumps out of her skin as she turns round to find Eila stood behind her with a grin on her face. "Don't sneak up on me and what are you doing in my room?"

"Sanya woke me up when she got into my bed again and I heard someone talking" Eila says as her grin grows larger. "So I went to investigate and find you staring at and drooling over the Major"

"I was not drooling!" Perrine shouts back as her face becomes bright red with embarrassment.

"But you were staring" Eila says as she leaves the room knowing that Perrine had enough and teasing her any more would result in trouble for her.

* * *

><p>In the kitchen of the base Yoshika and Lynne have just finished making breakfast while Lucchini sat on top of the counters watching them dish up the food as she nibbled on a biscuit. For today's breakfast Yoshika and Lynne have per-paired Bubble and Squeak using left over boiled cabbage, carrots, parsnips, sausages from last nights dinner, Lucchini was disappointed at this choice of dish because she was hoping for Yoshika to make her some Fuso food but with the latest supply shipment running late the witches have been forced to eat leftovers for the past few days. It wasn't the first time their resupply has run late, this fall has been the worst in living memory with constant rain turning all the roads into bogs making it impossible to drive over, resupply by air was also hampered by the bad weather as storms and low clouds would often ground aircraft.<p>

The last time supplies managed to reach the 501st was nearly a month ago but now that the weather looks to be improving a transport plan could arrive at any moment ring much needed supplies to the witches. This morning was probably the firs time in what felt like age's that the 501st have seen the sun rise over the horizon and for the witches it was a welcome sight as they hopped that it would mark the end of the terrible weather that has reeked havoc with their supply lines.

"Hey Lucchini" Lynne calmly says as she shakes the young witches shoulder who's lost in thought. "Breakfast's ready can you help us carry the plates in"

"Sure" Lucchini cheerfully replies as she jumps down of the counter.

The three witches manage to carry all of the dish's into the dinning room with them where they find all of the witches sitting around the table apart from Sanya who's just went to bed. Most of the witches are still half asleep apart from Minna and Gertrud who are wide awake, Sakamoto who looks exhausted and Erica who has her head down on the table fast asleep.

"Finally I'm starved" Shirley tiredly calls out as she spots the three witches carrying food towards the table.

"I hope you all enjoy it" Yoshika says as the three girls start to place the food on the table.

"I'm sure we will" Minna tells her as Yoshika places plate of food in front of her. "Oh can you wake Erica Trude"

"Fine" Gertrud responds sounding very unhappy about her latest orders. She turns round to her friend Erica and violently shakes Erica's shoulder knowing that there is not gentle way to wake up Erica. "Come on Hartmann it's time to get up breakfast is ready"

"Ten more minutes" Erica sleepy says as she wakes up for a split second before falling back to sleep. "Maybe twenty"

"Not even one now get up" Gertrud orders in a more angry as she again shakes Erica awake. "Now come on Hartmann wake up!"

"Five more minutes" Erica continues to silently protests as she tries to get back to sleep.

"That's not happening now get up and eat your breakfast!" Gertrud shouts back shoving Erica so hard that she falls out of her seat.

"Then sleep?" Erica asks as she slowly climbs back into her chair yawning loudly after she's retaken her seat.

"Of course not now eat your breakfast" Gertrud answers more quietly but still in an annoyed tone. "How can you call yourself a soldier of Karlsland when your so lazy?"

"Using my words" Erica answers making everyone at the table laugh and Gertrud to thrown in anger.

"Ha she got you beat there" Shirley mocks Gertrud sending chewed up pieces flying out of her mouth as she laughs.

"Stop encouraging her Yank" Gertrud snaps back before she turns her attention back to her food.

"Yeah should I?" Shirley says leaning across the table. "Afraid you've met your match"

"Calm down you two and finish your breakfast" Minna tells them getting control of the situation before it gets out of hand. "Now then I have some good news for everyone, I received word today that a supply plane will be able to bring us much needed supplies and should be arriving between ten and eleven AM"

* * *

><p>At around ten AM Minna was in her office finishing off her paperwork while she occasionally looked out off her window to see Sakamoto training the witches hard until they are all exhausted and laying on the ground struggling to catch their breath. Sometimes Minna wonders if the Major is pushing and training the witches to hard but the results speak for them self on the battlefield with their squad constantly getting results and winning victory's against the Neuroi.<p>

The only witches not training are Sanya who's still asleep, Minna who's in her office and Gertrud who's up in the command room monitoring the radar, Erica was meant to have joined her but Sakamoto and Gertrud insisted on having Erica train due to her laziness this morning. So far today's been very peaceful with no sign of the Neuroi and no military official trying to disband the witches, someone normally comes forward complaining about the witches incompetent or that women have no place in the military but once the higher ups are reminded about the witches kill count then the accuser quickly backs down. Everything this day was going so well until Gertrud runs into Minna's office interrupting the commander while she was halfway through filling out her latest report.

"Minna the supply plane has gone missing" Gertrud says as soon as she reaches Minna's desk.

"When did it happen?" Minna asks looking up from her paper work. "Was the Neuroi involved?"

"No a message came through stating that the plane suffered a mechanical problem and was returning to base" Gertrud says before pausing for a seconded or two. "But the plane never made it back and we've been ordered to search for it"

"Ok tell Sakamoto to get everyone in the briefing room" Minna says as she stands up leaving everything on her desk as it is. "I'll see if I can get some more information and meet you there"

"Yes ma'am" Gertrud replies with a salute before running out of the office.

Ten minutes later Minna entered the briefing room to find all of the witches waiting for her sat down at their desks apart from Sakamoto who's stood in front of them beside a blackboard watching Minna as she makes her way towards the board. The witches expression's range from concern to disappointment probable because of the downed plan, loss of supplies and possibly the loss of life to, there's no doubt that they already know about the downed plan. Everyone of the witches is present even Sanya which surprised Minna as she thought that Sanya would still be asleep at this time of day, she doesn't normally wake up till dinner is being served.

"As I'm sure you are all aware of the supply plane coming to resupply us has gone missing after reporting a mechanical problem" Minna says as soon as she reaches the front of the room. "The plan is believed to have crashed somewhere in this area and we have been ordered to search for the crash sight and possible saviours"

"Isn't this a job for the regular army?" Shirley complains looking board leaning down onto her desk. "This isn't the sort of mission us witches normally get"

"We'll the regular army are looking is well but because of the conditions of the roads they have request our assistance which will shell give" Minna answers. "Any other questions?" Minna asks before scanning the room for a few seconds spotting no one with a question. "Good no everyone is dismissed and is to prepare to move out in five minutes"

* * *

><p>Half an hour later the witches are landing at the crash sight spotted by Sakamoto with her magical eye. The crash sight is a burning wreck with cargo spreading out for miles in the planes wake, most of it is marked with the Strike Witches insignia and also burning along with the plan. The witches have only just got here but already its clear that no one survived the crash, Gertrud found both of the pilots still strapped into their seats burned to a crisp making Lucchini scream when she also spotted the two burnt corpses.<p>

"Was there anyone else on board?" Gertrud asks as she turns away from the dead pilots clearly disturbed by the sight of them.

"I don't know" Minna answers taking a look a the bodies. " Everyone take a look around for any sign that someone survived the crash and tried to walk away"

The witches spread out with some searing the twisted burning wreck and other the woods that surround the crash sight, while the witches were searching Minna was reading through the planes manifest trying to see who many people were on board. Oddly she finds that the manifest is incorrect not listing several of the cargo, after reading through and checking the cargo box's that survived Minna guesses that only half the cargo is listed on the manifest.

"Hey I found something" One of the witches calls out, most likely Shirley because it sounds like a Liberion accent to Minna. Seconds later Minna joined the rest of the witches surrounding Shirley who's holding a giant red ruby in her hands that looks similar to a Neuroi core. "I think I found a Neuroi core lady's"

"You can't have" Perrine says from the back of the group. "Neuroi cores are always destroyed with the Neuroi when they die, that's probably a giant ruby"

"It doesn't seem like a ruby to me and feels a lot lighter too" Shirley replies as she starts throwing it gently into the air to prove how light it is.

"Well you probable never owned a ruby that big before and know how much they weigh" Perrine tells her as she folds her arms over her chest.

"And I suppose you do" Shirley says back before deliberately dropping the ruby letting it crash to the ground and smashing into thousands of tiny pieces. "See it's not a ruby because they don't..."

"What's happening?" Lucchini asks clearly scared half to death as a red mist emerges from the shattered ruby completely engulfing the witches within a matter of seconds.

The mist isn't normal as the witches feet are stuck to the ground as if glued, the mist is also starting to make the witches dizzy and sleepy with Lynne, Yoshika and Lucchini fast asleep within seconds of breathing n the mist. The rest of the witches eventually join them collapsing one after another leaving only Gertrud and Sakamoto standing, they've been holding their breath since the the mist first appeared sensing the danger. They both have been battling their lungs trying to hold their breaths but its a losing battle and within less than a minute the are both on the floor asleep with their fellow witches.


	2. Chapter 2

The Witches wake up in some warehouse filled with rows upon rows of empty shelf's, judging from the light entering through the shattered and cracked windows high above their heads it's ever sunrise or sunset. The walls of the warehouse aren't in good shape ever with huge cracks covering the walls and chunks of the wall missing, wires swing freely across the warehouse with some of them live and shooting arcs of electricity into anything in reach.

Minna is the first one of the witches to get to her feet quickly followed by Gertrud but almost as soon as the two Karlslander's stand up they fall right back down after being overwhelmed by dizziness, Sakamoto also tries to get to her feet but fails is well.

"Where are we?" Lucchini asks as she franticly looks around the room. "How did we get her? I thought we were in a forest"

"We were but now I… I don't know where we are" Shirley says as she attempts comforts the young witch. "We are somewhere where the people speak Britannian but apart from that I don't know where we are"

"How do you know they speak Britannian here?" Minna asks.

"Over there by the door" Shirley says as she points to an exit sign above a wooden door that looks like someone has forced open. "That sign is written in Britannian"

"Well we have a way out of here at least" Erica says out loud to anyone who is listening. Just then the deafening sound of jet engines roar overhead and dust falls down from the ceiling as the planes pass over the warehouse at what sounds like low altitude. The warehouse shakes so much that it almost feels like an earthquake is happening but just as quick as the shaking starts it stops taking with it the sound of jet engines disappearing into the distance. "Sound like…"

"Hartmann look out!" Gertrud shouts as she tackles her friend, knocking her out of the way of a large piece of glass that was shaken loss by the passing jets. Gertrud only barely makes it in time stopping the glass from crushing Erica but not from a piece of glass slicing into her thigh as it shatters against the ground.

"Thanks Trude you…" Erica begins to say but stops when she notices the large gash in her friend's thigh that seems to be pouring blood out like there is no tomorrow. "Trude are you ok?" Erica asks as she presses her hands against Gertrud's wound trying desperately to stop the flow of blood streaming from the large gash. "Yoshika get over here Trude's hurt"

Yoshika starts to move right away without a moments hesitations but like those before her as soon as she stands up she falls right back down from dizziness. She then attempts to crawl and mange's it but only at a slow pace towards her injured comrade, by the time she reaches Gertrud's side there is a small pool of blood around Gertrud's waist and Erica's hands are bright red with her friend's warm fresh blood.

"Move your hands" Yoshika says as soon as she reaches Gertrud taking in the situation with just a quick glance at the wound. Yoshika wastes no time in getting started and as soon as Erica moves her hands away she starts using her healing magic, almost instantly the bleeding from Gertrud's wound stops and you can see the gash on her leg slowly close up.

"Is she going to be ok?" Minna asks as she crawls up beside Erica and watches Yoshika's healing spell at work.

"Yes she'll be fine but she'll be a bit weak for a while due to the amount of blood she lost" Yoshika answers as she continues to heal Gertrud's wound.

"That's good" Minna says with a sigh of relief. "Ok everyone as soon as we can all stand our first task will be to find out where we are so will we are waiting have a look around and try to spot any clues as to wear we are"

"Yes ma'am" Everyone but Yoshika who's busy healing Gertrud's leg replies before they start to look at everything around them.

After a few minutes everyone can stand but Gertrud requires the aid to support herself, she lost a lot of blood and reluctantly she leans on Erica's shoulder to stop herself from falling over. During those few minutes of recovery the witches couldn't find anything of use to tell them where they are so are currently moving towards the door marked exit. Once through the door the witches find themselves on the roof of the warehouse looking down onto a dock with a large cargo ship beside them that has been split in half and most of the ship is sitting underwater. The sky above them is filled with grey clouds warning them that rain is on the way and the sun is only just starting to raise above the horizon.

"Hey we're in New York!" Shirley calls out. "There's the Statue of Liberty"

"She's right I see it too" Lucchini says as she runs to the edge of the roof to get a better look.

"I think the Neuroi are attacking" Perrine says as she and everyone else looks towards the city.

The city is in rough shape with buildings missing huge chunks exposing the rooms inside and tall, wide thick black smoke clouds raising from all-over the city. The pair of jets that flew over the warehouse earlier are circling the city at low altitude weaving between the tall buildings making it impossible for Minna and Sakamoto to identify what county they belong too and what aircraft they are. The planes continue to fly through the city until a pair of missiles strike into each of the planes blowing off their wings and sending the pilots spinning into the tall building where they perish in in a fiery explosion.

"That wasn't the Neuroi" Gertrud weakly says.

"I know, that looked like human weapons that brought down those planes" Minna replies as she turns to face Sakamoto. "Did you get a good look at those planes?"

"No they kept disappearing behind the buildings before I could identify them" Sakamoto answers as she watches the wreck of one of the aircraft burn inside of the building it span into.

"We need to find out more about what's going on here" Minna says to herself.

"How about we check down there" Eila suggests as she points down towards something in the distance, Minna follows her finger to what Eila's pointing at. Eila is pointing at a small camp, you can only see a few sandbags from here and half of a tent but it's enough information to know there's a military camp there.

"Ok everyone we're going to take a look at that camp down there" Minna tells everyone as she turns back round to face the witches. "I'll take the lead, everyone else follow me and Gertrud stay in the middle of the group"

"Yes ma'am" Everyone responds before following Minna down a metal stair case bolted to the side of the warehouse.

The metal stair case takes the witches down to the dock next to the split in half cargo ship. The way to the camp is a straight line from the witch's current position and there are no obstacles in-between the camp. Minna continues to lead the witches towards the camp looking all around her on alert for any possible threat with Sakamoto right beside her also on alert, the rest of the witches are more at ease and not looking out for the possible dangers but looking around to take in all the sights.

There wasn't much left to see of the city, most of it is covered by tick clouds of smoke from multiple fires all-over the city and low grey clouds envelope the tops of the buildings. Every one of the squad seems to not see the problems that Minna and Sakamoto do, they are ever too caught up in sight seeing or in Gertrud's case can't focus do to a lack of blood. Minna and Sakamoto are the only ones, who realise how bad their situation really is, they are the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, New York is under attack by something or someone and those aircraft had jet engines which makes them years more advance than any other aircraft in the world and if those aircraft are hostile then mankind faces another powerful enemy.

When the witches finally make it to the camp they find it deserted and surrounded by a tall chain link fence topped with barbed wire. The camp consists of two green tents, two armoured vehicles with machine guns on top sit near the entrance but both have their tires slashed, there's another larger tent towards the back of the camp which was most likely a command tent and neatly lined up against the fence at the far side of the camp are rows upon rows of body bags each contain a dead body.

"Shit what happened here?" Shirley asks as she looks at the rows of filled body bags lined up along the back fence.

"I don't know, Shirley take Lucchini and keep watch at the entrance we just came through" Minna orders as she turns round to face the 501st. "Everyone else spread out and search the camp but be careful and stay in view of each other. Erica, take Trude and rest in one of the tents"

"Minna I'm fine…" Gertrud begins to protest but Sakamoto quickly cuts her off.

"Enough Barkhorn, look around you this city is under attack and we need you to recover if we want to survive" Sakamoto tells her. "If you push yourself too much then it will only put yourself and the rest of us in even more danger"

"Fine I'll go" Gertrud replies reluctantly before Erica helps her walk into one of the tents.

The witches spread out and begin to search through every tent in the camp. Yoshika and Lynne check the nearest tent where Erica helped Gertrud into just seconds before, when they enter the tent Gertrud is only just lying down onto one of the many beds inside the tent and Erica is holding the blanket waiting to tuck her friend in.

"Are you alright Barkhorn?" Yoshika asks as she and Lynne enter the tent.

"Yes I'm fine I don't need to be here and…" Gertrud answers as she snatches the blanket from Erica's hands. "I don't need you to tuck me in Hartmann"

"That's good" Yoshika says as she and Lynne start to search through the tent.

"So why are you two in here in the first place?" Gertrud asks as she rests her head on top of the pillow. "If Minna thinks I need more babysitters then she's wrong, I'm perfectly fine and don't even need to be here resting in the first place"

"Come on Trude you need to rest after losing as much blood as you did" Erica says as she raises the blanket up over her friend's mouth in order to shut her up. "Don't pay attention to Trude she's just a little too proud to accept help"

Sanya and Eila walk into the next tent in the row and find it's also another tent set up for sleeping but with one difference this tent looks like it was abandoned in a hurry, beds and boxes litter the floor and military uniforms have been scattered all over the room. There's a torch on the ground that flickers on and off as its battery dies casting eerie shadows all over the tent with each flicker of the light.

"Well this tent looks nice" Eila say's under her breath. "So were do you think we should start looking?"

"How bout we start with the paper work scattered on the floor" Sanya suggests as she examines the tent.

"Sounds like a plan" Eila replies as she bends down to pick up a photograph off the floor next to her feet. She looks at the photo and finds that it's a photo of a family sat together on the floor surrounded by gifts wrapped in colourful wrapping paper beside a Christmas tree. they all look so happy, a farther with his arm around the mother watching their son and daughter open present after present, they all look so happy and peaceful in the picture. "This family looks so happy"

"Yeah they do" Sanya says as she looks at the photo. "They look like they are having a wonderful time"

Perrine, Minna and Sakamoto walk into the large tent that they believe to be a command tent but find it to be a morgue, several rows of beds fill the tent and each one of those beds has a dead body covered with a blanket laid on top of it. The smell from the corpses hits the three witches as soon as they step inside and Perrine starts to gage, Minna looks like she's about to throw up but Sakamoto seems unfazed by the smell and sight of death and walks deeper into the tent.

"I don't think we'll find anything in here" Sakamoto says as she reaches the middle of the tent. "There's nothing but death in here"

The witches all regroup by the entrance to the camp with Gertrud and Erica being the last to join the group, Gertrud is in a lot better shape than before as she can now walk by herself instead of relying on Erica's shoulder for support. Eila is holding a pieces of paper that she found under one of the beds, Lucchini is looking slightly unnerved most likely from the sight of the dead bodies and the current state of the city and Shirley has her arm around the young witches should in an attempt to calm Lucchini's nerves.

"Ok so me, Sakamoto and Perrine failed to find anything" Minna announces in a slightly disappointed tone. "How did everyone else do?"

"We didn't find anything" Yoshika and Lynne reply almost at the same time.

"Erica was trying to suffocate me the whole time" Gertrud answers.

"No I wasn't I was trying to tuck you in nice and tightly" Erica quickly responds to her friends allegation. "It ended up covering your mouth because you wouldn't stay still, I swear babies are easier to get to sleep then you"

"I am not like a baby!" Gertrud angrily shouts back.

"Yeah she's right she's not like a baby" Shirley states. She's worse"

"Stay out of this Liberion!" Gertrud shouts turning towards Shirley before tightly gripping onto a giggling Erica's shoulder so hard that her friend winces in pain. "And you Hartmann better not try to suffocate me again"

"That's enough no lets get back on topic" Sakamoto says in an assertive voice that gets everyone's attention right away. Eila, Sanya what did out find and what do you have there Eila?"

"The only thing we found of us is this not here" Eila answers as she hands Minna the piece of paper. "It says that the people here moved to another camp in Central Park"

Minna examines the paper to confirm it for herself before she spoke again. "Ok that's where we are going, everyone get ready we are going to Central Park" Minna tells everyone as she turns towards Shirley. "Shirley would you be able to act as our guide?"

"Sure but I need to find out where we are first" Shirley replies as she looks around at her surroundings. "You think we should get onto a rooftop so I can get my bearings"

"Ok everyone we're moving out" Minna tells the group. That building across the street is the tallest around so we ware heading for its roof"


	3. Chapter 3

The build in which Minna lead the witches was some kind of office. The first floor was used as storage but the other two floors where offices filled with rows upon rows of desks and the fourth floor was set up as a storage room for paper work as the entire room was filled with filing cabinets as far as the eye can see. From the roof they couldn't see much because of the massive buildings of New York blocking their view but it's enough for Shirley to get her bearings on where she is and where they need to go. Shirley and Minna are the only ones on the roof, the rest of the witches are on the second floor trying to bust open some vending machines that they spotted on the way up to the roof.

"Ok I believe we are in the Liberty Warehouse so that means we are in Brooklyn so to get to Central Park we need to floor the river north and cross at the Brooklyn Bridge" Shirley says to herself as she examines her surroundings. "Ok I know where to go in order to get us to Central Park"

"Ok so what way do we need to go?" Minna asks as she stands next to Shirley on the roof.

"North until we run into the Brooklyn Bridge then we cross the bridge and there's bound to be signs on the other side for us to follow" Shirley answers as she turns round to face her commander.

"Ok let's go back and find the others" Minna says.

Meanwhile Sakamoto, Erica and Perrine are opening open the last of three vending machines on the second floor of the building while, Yoshika, Lynne, Sanya and Eila pack the food into plastic bin bags they food in a storage cupboard while Lucchini stands on watch. So far whatever or whoever is attacking the city hasn't revelled itself to the witches but that still hasn't put them at ease, instead they seem tense and on edge ready to go into action at a moment's notice. See those bodies really has put the witches on edge as before the sight of all those poor souls stuffed into body bags the witches where just enjoying themselves and now they keep a consent eye out for threats rather than the sights.

"Find anything good?" Shirley asks as she and Minna re-join the group.

"Yeah we did, loads and loads of chocolate" Lucchini says cheerfully as she runs into Shirley's chest. "All kinds of chocolate that I've never heard of before"

"Sounds good" Shirley says as she rubs the young witch's long dark hair.

"But that won't last long, did we find any water?" Minna asks as she walks up to the growing bags stuffed with soft drinks, water, chocolate bars and crisp packets.

"We did but also a few other drinks that I'm not sure what they are though" Sakamoto answers as she picks up a can labelled Sprite.

"Well if the people here drink it then it should be fine" Minna says as she takes the can from Sakamoto and carefully examines. "Did you find anything else her?"

"No we haven't" Sakamoto answers as Minna hands her back the can. "Everything here doesn't give us any information about what's going on and I haven't seen anyone alive since we got here"

"Ok we need to get moving as soon as we get everything packed up" Minna says as she turns round to face the entire group. "Trude how's your leg doing?"

"It's a lot better now that my magic's kicked in to heal it" Gertrud answers as she stands up and stretches her leg to prove that she's fine. "A few more minutes and I'll be in perfect condition once again"

"Ok good but don't push yourself" Minna tells her.

Five minutes later the witches was exiting the building and entering the street once again with Shirley taking the lead. The grey clouds still hang low over the city threating to start raining at a moment's notice, a cool wind is blowing through the city making the witches shiver due to the fact that none of them are wearing anything other than underwear or in some cases tights as well below the waist.

Walking through the deserted streets of the city is also sending shivers down the witch's spine as there is, something about a large abandoned city that should be filled with life being so empty that puts you on edge and weary of everything around you like something might come out of the shadows and attack you. All of the witches are nervous and on their toes ready to react to any situation, the only ones not nervous or at least not letting it show are Gertrud, Minna and Sakamoto. Gertrud is nervous deep down but won't let it show as she sees it as a weakness that she must not reveal to anyone else, Minna is also nervous but she's hiding it so that the others won't worry about her and Sakamoto is the only one of the group not to feel nervous or scared at all as there's nothing she believes she can't handle and no enemy she can't beat.

"Can we find a shop so we can get some pants" Erica whines as she shivers from the cool wind. ""I'm freezing my tail off here"

"Ok so everyone keep your eye out or a clothing store" Minna agrees as the cool wind turns colder and snow starts to fall out of the low grey clouds above.

They carry on walking for another few minutes until finally they find a clothing store called Jake's Second Hand Clothes, it was only a small store with a limited selection but everyone quickly found something to cover their bare legs with a coat to protect them from the dropping temperature and the now freezing cold wind that blows through the empty city streets.

The witches leave as quickly as they arrive and head towards the Brooklyn Bridge once again but now they are walking through a light snow which lifts all of the girl's sprites. Most of the witches like the snow and seeing it falling once again is enough to make them forget about the fact that they are trapped in New York and in danger from whatever or whoever is attacking the city.

"Hey Yoshika don't you think this snow is pretty" Lynne asks her friend as they walk side by side through the abandoned streets of New York.

"Yeah it is but what would make it even more perfect would be drinking your tea" Yoshika answers while giving Lynne a small smile.

"Yeah Lynne your tea is what we all need right now" Eila says from behind the two friends.

"Hopefully we can find somewhere you can make us some!" Lucchini shouts from at the front of the group beside Shirley.

"While I'll make everyone some later if I can" Lynne promises with a shy blush on her cheeks.

"I'm holding you to that Lynne" Shirley calls back.

"Yeah me two" Lucchini also calls back.

"Me three" Eila adds.

As soon as those words leave Eila's mouth the sound of gunfire in the distance shatters the silence of the deserted streets. Minna quickly orders everyone to stop and to be quiet leaving the only noise in the streets where the distance sound of gunfire. The shots are far away in the distance and by the sound of it are coming from Manhattan and involves guns of all calibre, by the sounds of it there are small arms and machinegun fire coming from the island but as quickly as the gun fire starts it stops leaving the city once again in silence.

"Are you sure we should be heading to Central Park?" Perrine asks Minna after a few moments of silence pass.

"Yes it's are best shot at finding out what is happening here and are best chance at finding other people" Minna answers even though deep down she's starting to doubt the idea. "Come on we need to get moving" She says as she turns to face Shirley. "Lead on Shirley"

"Yes ma'am" Shirley says as she starts to move forward once again only this time she's moving at a much slower more careful pass. "We should be at the bridge in about five minutes"

"Good, every stay on guard and call out if you see anything or anyone" Minna says as every starts moving forward once again.

The group once again moved on and kept up a slow pass giving every window a quick look and looking down every street and alley they pass checking for any sign of life but never finding any, five minutes later and just as Shirley said they reach the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge is a large suspension bridge joining Brooklyn to Manhattan. The bridge truly was a sight to behold, the sight of it is enough to make all of the witches to forget the current state of the city and their current situation.

"What a beautiful bridge" Yoshika comments as the witches approach the bridge.

"Yeah it's really lovely" Perrine agrees.

But laying on the bridge was not a pretty sight, at first the witches thought it was another abandoned position but as they approached it they soon realised just how wrong they were. On the bridge was a military checkpoint and scattered around it were dead Liberion soldiers laying in a pool of their own red blood. The only problem was that no one recognised the uniform they were wearing and when they get closer even the flag on their uniform is different. Their uniforms are a sandy colour other than the green uniforms the witches know and the flag on their should still has the red and white strips but instead of a single star in the top left hand corner it has multiple stars.

The weapons the soldiers are gripping with their cold dead hands are also unusual and nothing like any of the witches have seen before. The weapons the Liberion army are normally equipped with are M1 Grand's, Thompson submachine guns and BAR's but these soldiers here are all equipped with some sort of grey rifle with a handle on top of the gun.

"Shirley check what unit they are from, Lucchini, Trude keep watch and everyone else grab their weapons and check to see if any of them is still alive" Minna orders and everyone but Lucchini immediately complies with her orders, Lucchini seems to have frozen up at the sight of the bodies and Minna can't help but notice the young witches face has become pale. "Lucchini are you alright?" Minna gently asks the young witch as she walks over and just as gently places her hands on Lucchini's shoulder. "If there's something wrong you can tell me"

"No I'm fine I just not…" Lucchini begins to say but she stops herself when she sees Shirley flip over a dead soldier revelling that his stomach has been ripped open and his guts are hanging out. "I'm just…"

"It's ok I understand" Minna calmly says in a comforting voice as she guides Lucchini over to the bridges railing. "Now just stay here and look out over the sea until Shirley comes to collect you once we are done ok"

"Ok" Lucchini replies as she looks down into the river, both her and Minna know that she won't be of any help around these dead bodies, see's not use to seeing death up close and now that she is confronted with a corpse she has started to freeze up.

"Hey Minna these guys are from the National Guard" Shirley calls out as Minna walks back to the main group.

"Hey Minna whatever happened to these soldiers must have be quick and sudden as none of them fired a single…." Gertrud began to report but surprisingly Sanya is the one to interrupt her.

"Commander there is something coming from the north" Sanya suddenly says and everyone turns to her surprised that she would interrupt someone and sees that her magical antennas are out. "I can sense a radio signal approaching fast but something is stopping me from hearing what is being said"

"How many and how long till they get her?" Minna asks her as she and everyone else turns to face north looking out for any sign of the radio signals source.

"I can only sense one radio signal and its moving fast so it should be here any second now" Sanya answers as the sound of rotor blades starts to reach the witches ear.

"Everyone stay calm and don't do anything rash" Minna orders as she stand near the railing so she can be closer to the sound in the distance. "We have no idea whether they are hostile or friendly"

A white aircraft descends out of the low clouds and heads straight towards the witches, the craft has two rotor blades in an unusual position as they are above the craft rather than on the wings like the aircraft the witches are familiar with. There's another rotor blade at the tail of the craft and two guns hang out of each side of the craft. Sakamoto uses her magical eye to get a closer look at the craft and spots the word C.E.L.L written on the side of the craft.

"I sense three people on-board" Minna says as she uses her magic. "Ok everyone…"

Minna was interrupted by a hail of gunfire from one of the side guns on the craft forcing her and the rest of the witches into cover. The gun on the craft has a high rate of fire and has a very good firing angle on the witches able to keep everyone of them pinned down. Gertrud and Shirley return fire with the strange guns they picked up off of the dead and find that their guns fire in a three round bust instead of being semiautomatic like they were expecting, their efforts are in vain though as each of their bullets bonce right of the sides of the craft not doing any damage at all.

The craft is circling around the witches forcing them to constantly switch cover as the craft guns find new firing angles on them. Finally the gun runs out of ammo and as the craft spins around on the spot to allow its other gunner to fire while the first reloads Minna, Sakamoto and Eila mange to reach a gun and all five armed witches take aim and are ready to return fire before the craft is able to turn round. They open up on the craft as soon as it finished its turn, most of their bullets bouncy harmlessly off the side of the armoured craft but a few slam into the gunner before he can fire anything more than a short bust. The gunner falls from the craft and into the icy cold water below unfortunately firing a burst from his machinegun as he falls. The bullets rip through one of the steel cables holding the bridge up snapping it in half and sending it falling down on top of the witches.

"Lookout!" Shirley shouts out as the witches scramble to avoid being crushed by the falling steel cable.

The cable smashes into the bridge nearly slicing right through it, the falling steel may not have sliced through enough of the bridge to cut right through it but it cut deep enough to make any chance of escape back to Brooklyn impossible forcing the witches to head towards Manhattan. The gunner from the first gun moves to mount the other gun and manages to start to fire down onto the witches before they can recover from nearly getting crushed. Once again the witches find themselves pinned down by a hail of gun fire forcing them to switch from cover to cover as the craft circles above them. This time though Sakamoto mages to fire a three round burst into the gunner striking his shoulder with one of her bullets and causing him to fall back into the craft away from the gun clutching his shoulder. After that the craft retreats the way it came leaving the witches wondering who they were and why they just attacked them.

"Everyone on your feet we need to get moving before they come back!" Minna orders as she emerges from behind an overturned car that she took cover behind. Minna waits to make sure all of the witches are up and moving before she start to run to towards the jungle of skyscrapers.


	4. Chapter 4

The witches enter a small open area at the other end of the bridge with trees, benches and an overturned ice-cream truck along with a verity of other destroyed vehicles. Litter and leaves cover the stone ground making little tornados as the wind blows through with its freezing breath. Snow continues to fall quickly covering the litter and stone under the witches feet and through the cold wind once again comes the sound of gun fire, it sounds closer this time but none of the witches can pinpoint its source as the sound echoed though the city streets.

"Another fire fight" Shirley says as the gun fire dies down. "This cities turning into a warzone"

"Your right and I don't think it's safe for us to take the streets to Central park anymore" Minna tells her as she walks up beside Shirley. "How well do you know the subway system?"

"Not well but they have maps on every station so we should be fine" Shirley answers as she looks around the area until she spots the entrance to the subway system. "We might as well go check it out at least, I believe this line will take us to Central Park"

"Ok go check it out, Erica" Minna says bas she turns round to face the rest of the witches. "Go with Shirley to scout the subway station"

"Um Minna I don't think the subway will be working" Lucchini says from the back of the group with her raised hand just barely visible above everyone else's head. Everyone looks at the young witch to see if she was joking but the embarrassment visible in her reddening cheeks and down would stare so they soon found out that she was serious with her question.

"It won't be working, I believe it will be safer for us to walk through the subway tunnels with all the gun fire we heard and that aircraft that attacked us on the bridge still out there" Minna answer letting the whole group know her plan. "Shirley and Erica are going to scout the station and the reminds me, keep an eye out for a map so we won't get lost"

"Yes ma'am" They both reply before walking down the steps into the station.

The pair walk down the steps to the station to find it in just as bad shape as the rest of the city, broken lights flicker on and off, newspapers litter the ground and everything is covered in a thin layer of dust that most have seeped down from the ceiling after an explosion shook this area. A subway train lays stationary at the platform with its lights left on and doors wide open. Apart from the rats there doesn't seem to be anything alive down here, the rats don't seem to mind the absence of people as they freely run around the station eating out the trash cans and nibbling through the many dangling wires.

Strange posters line thee wall advertising movies, games and music CD's that never Shirley or Erica has heard of before. They spend a moment to examine each and every one of the posters taking in every detail, every picture and every word they have to other. Never before have the two witches seen or heard of such names, Godzilla, Fast and Furious Seven and The Avengers Ago of Ultron are just a few of the names the two Witches read off of the wall of posters.

"I never thought I would see so many posters in on place" Erica says aloud as she continues to look from poster to poster. "I think I would see some of these if I have a chance"

"Good luck with that see there" Shirley replies as she points out the release date on one of the posters. "It's not released until the 12/12/2023"

"Then why are they advertising a film if it doesn't come out for another seventy years?" Erica asks as she starts to check the release date on each and every poster. "Your right they all come out in 2023 apart from to that come out in 2024"

"I guess we are in the future" Shirley says after a few seconds of silence pass between the two witches as they both take in the situation they and the rest of the Witches are in. "That would explain these strange weapons we found and that aircraft on the bridge"

"But we… We can't be… Time travel only happens in books" Erica says with a worried look on her face as she turns to face Shirley. "How can we be in the Future?"

"I don't know but right now we need to check the tunnel and find a map" Shirley answers her as she turns to face the rest of the rat infested station. "We can discuss this with everyone else after we are done ok"

"Ok" Erica replies with a nod.

The two of them head towards the edge of the platform where the subway train comes to an end and poke their heads down the tunnel, they can't see nothing down there just an endless black void that makes it impossible for them to tell whether the tunnel is blocked or not. There was no point in looking into the darkness and both of them knew it so without a word they turn and walk back to the station in search of a map knowing that continuing to stare down the tracks was just a waste of time, Shirley makes a mental note though that they will need a touch and should keep an eye out for one, Erica on the other hand was too distracted by thought of being stranded in the future that she walked straight into a stone pillar supporting the ground above.

"Ouch" Erica says as she fall onto her ass and blood starts to drip out of her nose.

"Are you alright?" Shirley asks as she bends down beside Erica and rests a gentle hand on Erica's shoulder.

"Yeah I'm fine I'm just worried that… That we… We won't make it home" Erica answers looking like she's on the verge of tears.

"It's alright Erica" Shirley softly tells her as she pulls Erica in for a hug but only ends up suffocating Erica between her two large breasts. "Don't worry Erica we will make it back I promises"

"Mmm!" Is all that reaches Shirley's ears causing her to look don and realise that Erica is fighting for air trapped between her breasts.

"Sorry I didn't mean too" Shirley says with a light laugh as she releases Erica from her chest. Erica almost collapses from lack of air and has to support herself from falling as she takes deep breaths of air. "Sorry"

"It's… It's… Ok… I… I…" Erica says between breaths as she tries to refill her lungs. "I… Need that… Thanks it… Really helped"

"Don't mention it" Shirley tells her with a light slap on the back but in the weakened state Erica is in that light slap was enough to knock Erica onto the hard, cold concert platform. "Sorry, again"

Meanwhile back on the surface he Witches have moved into a nearby building to get out of the falling snow and freezing cold wind which is now blowing like there's no tomorrow sending wave after wave of endless litter down the streets in its strong gusts. Minna and Sakamoto are keeping watch over the entrance and keeping their eyes out for Erica and Shirley's return, the rest of the witches have huddled together for warmth in the lobby of the building talking amongst themselves as they wait for the scouts return.

The building provides some protection from the freezing wind but not from the coldness of the air that's dropping rapidly by the second. They huddle close together almost certainty squeezing the life out of Lucchini who's chorused but warm in the middle, they hop the Shirley and Erica would return soon with good news so they can shatter in the tunnels out of the cold freezing wind and falling snow. The snow at this point has lost its spirt lifting effect it had on the witches earlier and now it only threatens to freeze and drain the warmth out of their bodies.

"What's taking so long they should be back by now?" Gertrud asks impatiently as she shivers and hugs herself for warmth in this cold abandoned lobby. "Command let me go down there to check on them"

"No, you need to res and regain your strength Trude ever wise we could all be put in even more danger then we already are" Minna replies as she turns round to face the freezing witches. "Just be patient and they will be back before you know… Speaking of which Shirley is waving us over now" Minna says catching a glimpse of red hair by the station entrance with a hand waving them over to her. "Come on everyone into the station"

Everyone immediately runs towards and down the steps of the station desperately seeking a break from the freezing gale and falling crystal white snow. Minna and Sakamoto are the last ones to enter the station meeting Shirley at the top of the stairs who waited to talk to both of them. At first Shirley doesn't know how to say it but as they descend into the station the words come to mind and she tells both Minna and Sakamoto about what she and Erica found and that they might be in the future.

"Shirley if you are joking it's not a very funny or appropriate one" Minna says after hearing Shirley story as they enter the station below to hear a series of screams, the three of them instantly run towards the source only to find Perrine, Yoshika, Lynne, Lucchini and Sanya standing on whatever they could find to escape the hundreds of rats roaming the platform. "What's going on here is everyone all…"

Sakamoto has to take over when a large rat runs straight toward Minna causing her to freeze and flinch. "Come on lades if we are to take the tunnels there's bound to be more rats in there so get use to them now or you will be useless in those tunnels"

Slowly everyone got down from whatever they were stood on some looking more nervous than others as the place their feet between the rats which swam the platform. Finally everyone was stood on the floor and as if knowing the effect they are having all of the rats move and give the witches a wide area on the platform and disappear from sight. Down here in the tunnels is a lot better than the street, especially now the rats have gone, the wind no longer freeze the witches in its ice cold breeze and the snow isn't covering them in a white cold coat.

"Alright then every take a quick break" Minna says before turning to face Shirley but suddenly stops when her gaze passes over Erica and she sees a trail of blood dripping down her face from her nose. "Erica are you alright? What happened to you?"

"I'm fine I just walked into a wall" Erica answers in a voice that says she doesn't have a care in the world.

"While if you're sure" Minna tells her before she finally does turn round to face Shirley. "Shirley I what you to show me those posters"

Shirley takes both Minna and Sakamoto over to the wall that's covered in posters while the other witches stand around the platform keeping a nervous eye out for any more rats. They stay together like they did in the lobby huddled close together for warmth talking quietly amongst but every attempt to start a conversation soon dies out because of the bone chilling coldness of the air in the tunnel. Finally after five or ten minutes Minna, Shirley and Sakamoto return with both the Major and Commander looking like they've seen a ghost.

"Can I have everyone's attention" Minna says but her voice is so shaky that no one hears it and she has to repeat herself before she gets everyone's attention, once she has it she tells them all about the fact that they are in the future and the proof she has to support her claims. "Sorry to tell you this after everything that happened so far but I promise you that we will all make it back home alive and well"

"But how can we go back in time?" Yoshika asks after a few seconds of silence as the witches absorb the news and let it sink in.

"Don't worry sergeant if they is a way to transport us into the future then there must be a way to transport us back" Sakamoto answers sounding certain and confident even though she doesn't have a clue weather they will make it back or even if it's possible for them to return back to their time. "Everyone les get ready to move out"

"Well then you hear the Major let's move out, Sanya we need you taking point as your ability will make you the only one of us who can see in the tunnel" Minna orders as soon as Sakamoto finishes her sentence.

"Yes ma'am" Everyone says as they slowly and reluctantly make their way down onto the tracks scattering the rats that have swarmed the floor.


	5. Chapter 5

The tunnels were pitch black and even Sanya using her magic and used to seeing in the dark is having trouble seeing anything in front of her. The only thing the witches can do to keep them on track is to use their fee to feel their way along the track. Everything is so dark and so quiet that even every step is clearly heard and echoed through the tunnel, the entire walk is starting to play on the girl's nerves as every one of them has the feeling that they are being watched and they all see shadows moving all around them like something's about to attack. The witches footsteps aren't the only sound that can be heard down here though, in the distance the sound of water dripping can be heard and gunfire once again rips through the air as explosions cause dust to fall all around the witches.

The witches continue to walk through the darkness for ten minutes in complete silence as they fear speaking might cause the shadows to attack, they keep walking until a faint orange glow can be seen flickering in the distance and the faint smell of smoke accompanies it. The witches stop in their tracks keeping in the shadows at the edge of the flickering light hiding in the darkness like ningers as if something is about to happen. The source of the light is hidden round the corner making it impossible for the witches to spot the source and determine if it's a threat or not.

"I need two people to scout it out" Minna says as she steps forward into the light. "Any volunteers?"

"I'll go" Sakamoto says instantly stepping forward into the light beside Minna.

"I'll go too" Gertrud announces also stepping into the light.

"Ok go scout out ahead and call back if you need help or if it's safe to advance" Minna orders sending the two witches on their way.

Sakamoto leads the way round the corner walking further and further into the light until the source of the light and smell of smoke becomes clear, a derailed subway train lays blocking the tunnel set ablaze with burnt corpses hanging out of the windows. More bodies litter the floor but they didn't die from burns or smoke, they were shot. The weapon that done the kill is like nothing the Major has seen before, the wound looks like it was done by a bullet but it also looks burnt in a way Sakamoto is familiar with, like a burn from a Neuroi beam.

Sakamoto turns round to check on Gertrud and sees her examining a large pile of bodies. These one's weren't just cut down with gun fire or burnt like the others but instead it looked like someone shot each of them in the back of the head execution style one at a time their bodies falling on top of the pervious body.

"It looks like we need to head back the tunnels blocked" Sakamoto says as she approaches Gertrud trying to avoid the subject of the massacre all around them.

"Yeah but what could of done this?" Gertrud asks still staring at the pile of dead but mostly at the corpse of a little girl probably five years old at the most with a bullet shot right through the her head. There's no doubt that she's worried about her sister Chris who's in a hospital bed and seeing that girls corpse is most likely causing her to see her sister dead with a bullet through her head. "I didn't even think people were capable of murder like this"

"We'll find out who did this later but right now we need to get back to the others and tell them the bad news" Sakamoto answers not wanting to talk about the death around her, she turns to go but stops when she notices Gertrud still staring at the corpse of the little girl. "Come on Barkhorn we there's nothing we can do for them"

With a silent nod Gertrud agrees and follows the Major back to the others feeling sick and depressed as images of Chris having her brains blown out fill her mind. Thanks to the fires glowing light it's easy for Minna to spot both Gertrud and Sakamoto's shadows returning but when they round the corner it's clear to her that they are returning with bad news.

"What's wrong?" Minna asks as the two witches approach her.

"The tunnels blocked and there's no way we can clear it to get through" Sakamoto reports in a saddened tone. "Also it's a massacre back there with bodies all over the place killed by gun fire"

"Is there anything I can do to help them?" Yoshika asks as she emerges from the shadows.

"No Miyafuji it's too late to help them they've been died for a couple of days at least" Sakamoto tells her.

"So we have to turn back then" Minna sighs getting back on topic. "I was hoping we could have avoided risking the streets"

"Hey we might not have to!" Shirley calls out of the darkness. "There's a door here that might open to a way round the blockage"

"Ok then everyone through the door" Minna orders quickly weighing up her options.

"Are you sure about this?" Sakamoto asks as she and Minna hold back watching the witches disappear back into the darkness.

"Yes, it's too cold to take the streets and that aircraft might back and searching for us" Minna answers as she and Sakamoto start to walk back into the darkness. "It's our only option"

Sakamoto didn't reply to Minna's last comment knowing that Minna was right, to take the streets would mean to ever freeze to death or engaged by that aircraft. The two of them vanish into the darkness looking for Shirley's door which they find easier then they imagined as a faint light can be seen shining from inside the room.

They step through the door and into a small barren room with wires and pipes running along every wall, the faint light that guided Minna and Sakamoto to the room turns out to be Shirley holding a torch who seems to be struggling to fend off Lucchini, the young witch probably wants to hold it. It isn't much of a challenge for Shirley to fend off her young rival for the light as all she need to and is doing is holding the torch high above her head well out of Lucchini's reach. Apart from the torch and an empty tool box there is nothing in the room and even though there is no one other than the witches in the room the nose emitted from the pipes sound an awful lot like foot step scaring some of the witches and putting the rest on edge.

"Where did you get that torch from and Lucchini if you keep that up you will not only break the torch but also learn the true meaning behind the word punishment" Sakamoto asks and warns causing Lucchini to shiver in fear and instantly stop jumping for the torch.

"It was in the tool box but I'm not sure how long the batteries will last" Shirley answers.

"Was there anything else?" Minna asks joining in the questioning, Shirley shakes her head quickly and quietly answering the question. "Ok then is there another way out of her?"

"Yeah there's a thin corridor here" Gertrud answers while pointing towards an opening in the wall.

"Ok Trude take point with Shirley and led on" Minna orders and once gain everyone moves without a word to follow the order.

Walking through the corridor was a tight squeeze even though the witches were walking in a single fire and once again hey were walking in the dark as the only light emitted from the torch was being directed to light the path ahead of the witches. The walls, floor and ceiling of the corridor are concrete with wire's and pipes running along the wall making the tightness of the corridor even tighter forcing the witches to press themselves tightly against the wall in order to proceed. There must be a hole up ahead as a light freezing breeze gently chills the witch's feet causing them to start to shiver once again.

The tunnel goes on and on with no end in sight and the gentle breeze slowly freezes the witches while the tightness of the corridor threatens to crush them. In reality the witches have only been walking for around ten minutes through the tight tightly crushing corridor but for the witches it felt like an hour due the gentleness of the cold air freezing their bodies and the darkness that engulfed them, finally thought the witches found themselves in a small room with lockers and a staircase which judging from the breeze leads to the streets above.

The room is just as barren as the room the witches just left with the only furniture in the room being the lookers and a small broken light hanging drown by a wire from the ceiling. Most of the lockers are left open with their doors swinging gently in the breeze making light tapping noses as they slowly crash into each other.

"Well it looks like we are going to have to risk the streets" Sakamoto says as she looks around the room in a failed attempt to find another way to go.

"Yeah I guess we do" Minna replies as she looks up the stairs. "Everyone stay here while I take a look"

"Commander are you sure that's a good idea" Gertrud asks stepping in front of Minna blocking her access to the stairs. "I'll go instead"

"Don't worry about me I'll be fine I'm only going to poke y head round the corner" Minna tells her as she walks by Gertrud with a small smile on her face.

Minna quickly walks up the stairs preventing Gertrud from saying anything else, she doesn't stop moving until she reaches the door leading to the outside and find it's already open slightly. Minna pulls open the door and looks into the world outside, the light hurts her eyes after being so long in the dark and the icy coldness stings her face with its first gust of wind simultaneously coating her shoulders with a thin layer of snow. Her body starts to shiver within seconds and Minna can almost feel her fingers and toes being frozen solid, the temperature has plummeted and the wind intensified during the time the witches spent underground.

Minna couldn't force herself to look for long but she saw a frozen world outside, with cars buried under a blanket of snow and white lines shooting into the ground as the wind blows the flakes so hard that Minna can't see the individual flakes like she did before. Nothing and no one could be seen on the streets and visibility has dropped dramatically, in the current conditions only the other side of the street is visible.

Minna scans around for a few more seconds before she spots a store across the street perfect for their current situation, it's a bed store with blankets and pillows also on sale. Minna's smile grows on her face once again at the sight of the store, it's the perfect place for the witches to stay warm in the blizzard and she can't help but feel warmer already at the sight of her discovery. Filled with joy Minna quickly closes the door shielding herself from the coldness lurking outside before looking down towards the witches.

"Everyone get ready to move out the streets are clear and there's a store across the street where we can stay warm" Minna happily tells everyone.

"I thought we was heading to Central Park" Shirley says as the witch's gather at the bottom of the stairs.

"We can't the snow fall has turned into a blizzard since we went underground and we will freeze to death before" Minna informs the group. "So everyone follow me and stay close to each other"

"Yes ma'am" The witches reply as Minna opens the door as wide as it can go letting in the snow and coldness instantly causing everyone to shiver and hug themselves for warmth.

Everyone practically runs across the street and into the store despite to get out of the cold, even Minna and Sakamoto ran despite their best efforts to resist the urge. Inside the store everything was untouched and looks to be in great shape despite the destruction throughout the city and the carnage in the subway. The store is huge, bigger than anything the witches, apart from Shirley has ever seen, the store was filled with hundreds of bed fit for a princess that was already made.

"Wow" A number of the witches say out loud as they stand mouths wide open staring into the store.

"This store is ginormous" Yoshika says as she looks from side to side taking in all of the store. "I've never seen so many beds before"

"This store is a typical store in Liberion" Shirley tells her.

"Ok everyone get under a blanket before we all freeze to death and then we can discuss Liberion shopping" Minna orders and everyone complies without hesitation as if Minna's order has suddenly reminded them of the freezing coldness filling the room.

Everyone gets their own blankets apart from Yoshika who shares a blanket with Lynne and Eila who shares hers with Sanya. After everyone is under a blanket the sit on top of the bed where they took their blankets from and huddle under them for warmth. Sakamoto is the only one not under a blanket as she walks from witch to witch handing them a chocolate bar and caned drink from a garbage bag. She has only just finished and was just about to grab something for herself when the sounds of engines shatter the silence and out of the corner of her eyes she sees Sanya's antenna's appear above her head.

But before Sakamoto could say anything four white jeeps with machineguns on top speed past the shop like they are in a hurry. Luckily hey never thought to look into the shop as the witches didn't no time to hide before the jeeps appeared and with the amount of fire power they would have brought to bear on the witches could of easily won them the battle.

"Where were they going in such a hurry?" Erica asks as she runs to the shops doo and looks down the street after them.

"I don't know but judging by the colours of the vehicles I'm guessing they are the same people who attacked us on the bridge" Minna replies as she walks up to Erica. "Erica can you please shut the door it's letting in all the coldness from outside"

"Sanya did you hear any radio messages?" Sakamoto asks as Erica tightly closes the door and Sanya nods in reply. "What were they saying?"

"They were talking about someone called Profit and that they sighted him in sector twenty three" Sanya answers in a quiet shy voice. "They seem to want him really badly as they are sending all available units towards him"

"Did they say anything else?" Minna asks as she steps up beside Sakamoto.

"No only a few units replied in response but nothing else happened" Sanya replies as her antennas once again activate for a few seconds before disappearing as quickly as they appeared. "Profit has just disappeared and squad two suffered heavy casualties"


	6. Chapter 6

The witches stay huddled under the covers for over an hour while the blizzard blows itself out, as the storm went on the snow built up until at least there's a meter high wall of snow in front of the store. The witches huddle close together in order to keep warm as the temperature rapidly drops desperately trying to keep warm. Thankfully after freezing the witches half to death the storm finally lifts and the witches can see the wall of snow trapping them inside the store and causing the glass to creek and creak under the pressure of the snow presses against it.

The temperature raises slightly as the storm lifts but not enough to stop the witch's bodies from shaking with coldness, the lights in the shop floor are starting to flicker on and off and a thin layer of frost starts to form over everything inside the store. The witches stay huddled together until they have enough warmth in their bodies to move which thanks to the coldness in the air takes about ten fifteen minutes to do but once they are able to move again Minna, Sakamoto and Gertrud get back on their feet while the others continue to huddle together.

"We need to start a fire or will freeze to death" Minna says as she hugs herself warmth.

"Ok I'll... I'll start to break up wood from the beds" Gertrud says as she shivers from the coldness and walks over to the beds.

"How are we going to start a fire once we..." Sakamoto starts to ask but the loud sound of wood breaking and both Sakamoto and Minna turn round to see Gertrud kicking a large double bed to pieces over the other side of the room. "How are we going to start a fire once we get the wood?"

"I don't know" Minna answers before she turns to the rest of the witches still huddling together under a cocoon of blankets. "Does anyone know how to start a fire?"

"I do" Sanya says in a sweet quiet voice that is barely audible in a room filled with breaking wood, chattering teeth and shaking bodies. "I know how to start a fire"

"How did you learn how to start a fire?" Eila asks as she and Sanya huddle up to each other.

"The area where I lived in Orussia would normally be this cold... We had to use wood from a nearby forest to stay warm and we didn't always have matches to start a fire with" Sanya answers in an equally quiet voice to what she used before. "All I need to get it started are a thin piece of wood sharpened at one end and another piece of wood with a small hole cut in the middle of it"

Sanya got up and walked over to the growing pile of smashed wood that Gertrud is growing with each crushing blow she delivers to the beds. With the help of Gertrud's wood snapping arms Sanya has everything she needs to start a fire, in the meantime while Gertrud was preparing the wood for Sanya Eila has crawled out of the warm group huddle and has joined Sanya ready to help get the fire started. Everything was ready, everything was perfectly ready for the fire until Shirley noticed one problem, a problem so big that it could get the witches killed if the fire is light.

"Wait! Don't light the fire!" Shirley shouts out as she jumps up from the group huddle sending the blankets that cover the huddling witches all over the floor causing all of the girls to shiver and shake once again but grabbing Minna's attention. "You can't light the fire, if you do then the sprinklers will go off and soak us to the bone most likely with freezing cold water"

Minna looks up at the ceiling spotting after a few helpful directions from Shirley the shops sprinkler system. "Thanks for pointing it out Shirley we nearly just killed ourselves there"

"Shirley do you think you could find a way to turn it off?" Sakamoto asks as she scans the ceiling taking in every sprinkler up there.

"Yes but it will take me about ten minutes" Shirley answers as she steps over the huddling witches who are now starting to recover themselves with the scattered blankets.

"Ok get it down" Minna says as she starts to shiver. "We won't start the fire until you return so please hurry"

"Yes ma'am" Shirley says as she walks of trying to find the basement as that is her best guess as to the location of the water valve feeding the sprinklers.

Shirley finally does find the stairs to the basemen hidden behind a red door, the stairs leading down to the basement are clod metal stairs leading down into the darkness below, a darkness so dark that it's impossible to see your hand in front of your face. Shirley has to wait a few minutes at the bottom of the stairs for her eyes to adjust to the suffocating darkness surrounding her so she can see but even when her eyes do finally mange to adjust her eyes she can barely see anything with her visibility being reduced to about half a meter.

Shirley has no choice but to feel along the wall in order to search the room as the darkness is too dark to allow her to search any other way. There is no light down her in this freezing clod basement as all the windows are covered by snow and the lights no longer work. Her task is made all the harder because of the darkness as she needs to feel every inch of every wall then hoping that once she finds a valve that it's the right one, to makes things worse there are object's scattered all over the floor threating to trip Shirley up with every step she takes and there's a squall of rats along with the quiet patter of their feet making her nervous and scared to stay down in the basement.

Shirley continues her search for what feels like forever in the freezing, rat infested darkness of hell. Every second Shirley in here is a second she has to force herself to endure, this is Shirley's idea of hell, a dark room filled with rats. Shirley used to have nightmares about being in a situation like this, but back then she'd wake up and find herself laying on her bed but now her nightmare has become a realty where no matter how hard she tries she'll never wake up in her bed.

She continues her search but she stops when she hears the sound of footsteps, she shouldn't have stopped because it was probably Gertrud coming to check up on her and lecture her about how a Karlsland soldier would have found the water valve by now. But there's something, something that puts her on edge as she listens to the footsteps get closer and closer towards her and then it hits her, the footsteps are coming from the wrong direction not from the stairs but from somewhere deeper in the room and are getting closer and closer towards her.

Shirley quickly dives behind a concert column as she reaches for her gun where she makes a retaliation that makes her stomach drop, she's left her gun upstairs under the warm cocoon of blankets. Shirley begins to panic as the footsteps get closer and closer, louder and louder causing her to start to shake not because of the cold but because of the fear surging through her body. She uses her hands to pat the floor around her searching for some kind of weapon and she gets lucky finding a nice solid steel bar about a meter long laying on the ground just nest her shaking body. She grips the bear with her both hands and stands up readying herself to ambush whoever is coming as the walk right past her hiding spot.

As soon as Shirley senses the person is within her striking distance she takes on deep breath before summoning her familiar, swinging the steel pole with all her strength striking whoever was advancing on her straight in the side of the head.

Something isn't right though, the person she attacked looks taller than a man and is covered in shiny silver armour with two bright orange eyes stare up at her. She hit it with all her strength, the steel pole is even bent nearly into a right angle to prove it but somehow she only manages to put whoever this on their knees. Shirley once again swings down the pole with all the strength she can muster but before the pole can make contact with the things head a cold metal fist slams into Shirley's stomach sending her flying back halfway across the room.

Shirley lands hard on the freezing concert ground, the wind is knocked out of her lungs by the force of that things fist leaving her gasping on the ground for breath. Whatever that thing is it hits hard and is a lot stronger than anything Shirley has seen before, maybe stronger then Gertrud. Shirley struggles to catch her breath as she lays on the ground but before she can fully recover she spots three orange glowing projectile's heading straight towards her. At the last minute Shirley manages to put up her shield blocking all three glowing hot bullets but by doing so she is left out of breath.

"Hey! Girl's I… I need help!" Shirley shouts out as loud as she can as she gasps for breath and crawls behind a nearby wall. "Help Me!"

As soon as those last words leave her mouth a line of bullets shoot straight through the wall like it was made of paper causing the bricks to shatter into dust as the glowing bullets slice right through them, luckily those bullets miss their mark and sail harmlessly over Shirley's head. Seconds after the first burst of gunfire another bust cuts another lie through the wall forcing Shirley to lay flat on the ground to avoid getting struck but the boiling hot projectile's which slice right through the wall covering Shirley in dust from the shattering bricks.

That gun is nothing like anything Shirley has seen before, its bullets slice through concert like a hot knife through butter and it must have low recoil in order to shoot a line that straight across the wall, it's an almost perfectly straight line. The bullets that gun fires are also impressive as not a single on shattered as it sliced through the wall and the burning hot glow would cause severe burns as well as create a large hole in you if they hit you.

Another second passes and another line of bullets shatter the wall this time forcing Shirley to us her shield to defend herself. Her shield stops the bullets but the force of the impact slam her into a pile of cardboard boxes sending them tumbling and scattering their contents of pillow cases all over the floor around her.

"Someone help me!" Shirley once again screams as loud as she can as she hears footsteps of whatever that thing is attacking her as it slowly walks round the corner, slowly walking over to finish her off.

"What are you yelling about because if it's a rat then I'm not going to help you Liberion" The unmistakable tone of Gertrud's voice comes down the stairs. There must be a light switch up because as her voice reaches Shirley's ears the lights to the room come on, not so busted after all. "I swear that you Liberion's will be the death of the military if you don't change your ways"

"Barkhorn there's…" Shirley tries to warn the Karlsland witch as she descends the stairs but her warning comes too late as a three burst round from the things gun rockets towards the descending witch.

Luckily Gertrud see's the incoming rounds and she dives to the ground with the rounds just barely scrapping over her. Unlike Shirley Gertrud has brought her strange weapon with her and as soon as her body hits the floor she sends two three round burst back at the creature before she jumps back up to her feet and moves into cover. The first of her three round burst strikes the creature dead on its shoulder but the bullets bonce straight off of its armour, her second burst hits the creature square in the chest but her bullets have no effect on her targets thick armoured body.

Only now with the lights switched on does the creature's whole body come into view. Thick silver armour covers is body from head to toe, two bright orange lights for eye's and pale skin is visible through gapes in its armour, all together whatever this is it looks more mechanical than organic. Its weapon is being gripped by two strong metal arms as it aims it at Gertrud, the gun looks just as strange as the weapon in Gertrud's hands, weirder even as here is no stock, trigger or ammo cartridge visible anywhere on the weapon. The gun is just one large piece of metal with the only thing that makes it clear it's a gun, a large barrel that fire glowing hot rounds at its targets.

"What the…" Gertrud tries two ask but two rounds smash into the concert support column forcing her to duck for her life as dust from the column coats her back, shoulders and hair in a grey coat. She quickly returns fire sending another three round burst and the armoured creature with no effect as all three bullets bounce straight off the creature's metal covered head. "What the fuck is that thing?"

"I don't know but its strong so be careful if it gets close to you" Shirley answers as she gets to her feet and untangles herself from the web of pillows.

Gertrud moves from behind the column just in time as the creature sends four shots through the concert causing the whole thing to explode scattering a cloud of dust throughout the room. As she runs for cover Gertrud fires enough burst but as she moves her shots aren't accurate with only one of her bullets hitting and bouncing off that things armoured shoulder. The creature also returns fire but its aim is not as fast as Gertrud because every bullet it fires hits the wall punching a large hole in it but missing the witch by a few yards each time.

But now with its attention on Gertrud and its back to Shirley gives Shirley an unexpected opportunity, the creatures back is poorly armoured and its pale flesh is visible and exposed. Vulnerable to attack even from Shirley an injured unarmed witch who's having trouble controlling her magic due to her injuries. She looks around for anything, anything she could use as a weapon against this thing, finally Shirley finds a nice sized chip off brick that could be used as a dagger. She can't help but think of the irony of the situation if her attack works, that things weapon meant to kill her and protect that creature has proved her with this chunk of brick that takes its operators life.

Once again Shirley takes a deep breath before she charge the creature summoning her familiar as she runs towards the creature with the chunk of brick held high above her head. Shirley jumps ono the creature back wrapping her legs tightly around its waist as she drives the chunk of brick deep into the back of the creature's neck. The armoured creature gives off one loud cry of pain before it collapses on the floor dead before is body hits the ground, purple blood floods out of its wound pushing the piece of brick out of the creatures neck in a tsunami of purple blood.

Gertrud walks up to Shirley and together both of them look over the creature examining every inch of its body until the purple blood coats its body completely and a loud fizzing sound nearly deafens both of the girls. They look or the source and see the creatures powerful gun melt away until all that's left is a pool of metal which begins to mix with the purple blood, the purple blood is quickly coating the floor and has already dyed the witches feet a dark purple.

"What the fuck is this thing?" Gertrud asks repeating her earlier question but know she is running her fingers across the creature's body covering her fingers in its purple blood. "I have never felt anything like this. This metal armour is so strong yet it's so flexible and light"

"I don't know but now it looks like we have two enemies to face" Shirley answers as she dips her had into the purple blood feeling the creatures armour confirming what Gertrud just said. "This day is just getting better and better"

"We should tell Minna about this" Gertrud says as she removes her hand from the creatures armour.

"Tell me what?" Minna's voice asks as Gertrud and Shirley turn to leave and find both Minna and Sakamoto walking towards them with their weapons in their hands ready for use. Unfortunately as Gertrud was about to answer the loud fizzing sound happens again but this time it's the creatures body and armour melting into the sea of purple blood, no evidence they were there and no weapons or armour left behind that could be turned against them. "I think you two should start explaining what just happened down here"

* * *

><p><strong>Note<strong>

**I have made some changes to the Ceph like the blood and melting. I have some other changes planned for C.E.L.L and the Ceph for the purpose of the story but don't worry as the changes aren't that big.**

**I made the Ceph a tough fight in this chapter and I plan to make the rest of the Ceph just as tough but if you think the are too powerful and strong as in later chapters there will be multiple Ceph involved in each fight then let me know and I will weaken them.**


	7. Chapter 7

Minna and Sakamoto stare down at the pool of purple blood not believing what they saw, a monster melted right before their eyes. Shirley and Gertrud wait in silence giving their commanding officers a chance to take everything in the scene, waiting for them to question them on what happened here even though that's written all over the bullet riddled walls. The basement has been devastated by the fight, most of the walls look like Swiss cheese, the purple blood covers most of the floor as well as the scattered bullet cases and boxes of bedding are knocked over all around them scatting their continence all over the floor. Both the Commander and Major stare at the purple mess with Sakamoto also prodding it with the toe of her boot. Finally after a minute of silence and examination the two witches turn round to face Gertrud and Shirley.

"So which one of you wants to tell me what happened down here?" Minna asks giving both of them a quick look over.

"I came down like you said but I couldn't find a light switch, I fumbled around in the dark for a minute or two before I heard that thing walking towards me" Shirley explains. "I tried to hit it with a steel pole but that thing could take a hit and also hits hard" Shirley says as she lifts up he shirt showing everyone the large bruise that's formed on her stomach where that thing hit her. "Also its weapon could shoot clean through a concrete wall"

"That's true it fired several bullets at me through a wall" Gertrud confirms.

"Ok Shirley you can go now" Minna says. "Go see Yoshika about your injury"

"Yes ma'am" Shirley says as she walks off back towards the stairs.

"It's a shame that weapon didn't survive" Sakamoto says. "It could have decimated the Neuroi if we could have brought it back with us and sent off to Ursula"

"Yeah but for now we need to stay on guard" Minna says as she looks at several perfectly round bullet holes through a concert pillar. "We need to pack up and leave now before more of those things turn up"

"I agree its two dangers to stay here" Sakamoto says.

"Me too" Gertrud adds.

"Ok then, I'll handle the pack up" Minna says as she turns round to face her two friends. "While I'm doing that I want both of you on the roof or as high as possible to find us a route out of here"

"Yes ma'am" Gertrud replies.

"Are we still heading to Central Park?" Sakamoto asks as the three of them walk towards the stairs.

"No we won't make it in this weather" Minna answers. "Just look for any building that looks safe and make sure it's some distance from here but not too far"

"Understood" Sakamoto replies as the three of them renter the store where the rest of the witches are still waiting.

Minna walks over to the other witches whilst Gertrud and Sakamoto ascend the stairs. Most of the witches are still huddled under the blankets apart from Sanya and Eila who are waiting to start a fire and Yoshika and Shirley who are in the middle of healing. Minna walks into the middle of the group and is met by the worried eyes of all the witches who by now has heard what happened in the basement. They are all silent waiting for Minna to speak and tell them what to do ever too scared or too cold to think for themselves.

"Everyone can I have your attention" Minna asks as but no one responds with any form of an answer all they do is look at her. "We need to get moving, something attacked Shirley and Trude so we are not safe here. I need everyone to take a blanket each, Sanya and Eila I need you to carry the fire wood is well. We need to be ready to move as soon and Trude and Sakamoto return"

The witches are slow and reluctant to leave the warmth of their blankets but slowly they comply and star to pack up with only Erica and Lucchini complaining about it. The wood was already in a neat pile and the food and water supplies already packed so the only work there was to do was to fold up the blankets to make them easier to carry, but because of the cold this task proved to be nearly impossible to complete.

"Hey won't it be easier to grab a sleeping bag each from the next floor?" Erica asks as she throws her blanket down giving up after her tenth failed attempt to fold it. "There only on the next floor"

"Ok everyone forget your blankets and move to the next floor" Minna says much to the relief of Lucchini who was also having trouble folding. "How did you know they have sleeping bags upstairs?"

"There's a big sign there saying "Camping Equipment 2nd Floor" behind you" Erica says pointing out the sign to Minna.

Meanwhile Gertrude and Sakamoto has reached the top floor of the building, they tried to get onto the roof but the weight of the snow prevented them from opening the door. They look out over the city of skyscrapers for any place that could be safe. The sun is starting to break through the clouds making it easier to see their surroundings but the builds around them sill block their view in some areas. The city seems quiet and peaceful under its white blanket of snow the complete opposite of what the witches have come to know the city as since the set foot on the Brooklyn Bridge.

They look and look unable to see anything sign of life across the city, as things stand now any building out there would be safe but neither Sakamoto nor Gertrud can be sure if there are any hostel humans or monsters inside. So instead of looking for a building that in devoid of life they look for a building that offers some kind of defence and not so far away that the witches will freeze in route. There's only one building in sight that fits that criteria. A large stone building surrounded on all sides by snow covered gardens and thick heavy wooden doors. From there they could see any enemy approach them and the stone walls will offer great protection in a fire fight, unless those monsters attack.

"I think that stone building the best choice to head to" Gertrud says as she looks over to the Major only to find that she was already looking at her.

"I was just about to say the same thing" Sakamoto replies as she looks out over the city once again. "Now we just need to spot the best route to get there"

"On it" Gertrud responds before she too looks over the city.

Back downstairs the other witches have grabbed another sleeping bag and are waiting for the other two witches to return, Minna has took another two sleeping bags for them once they return. They have all split off into their small groups and are chatting to pass the time and to take their minds off of the mind numbing coldness they are experiencing. Everyone is talking about anything other than the weather and temperature, they talk about their homes in summer in an attempt to fight off the coldness.

Yoshika and Lynne are sat of the side near a window, Minna assigned them lookout duty for the front of the building. It appears to be a mistake as those two talk a lot more then lookout the window in search of any threat.

"Hey Lynne do you think these monsters are like the Neuroi and invading the planet?" Yoshika asks her friend as the two of them neglect their duty once again after giving the street below a quick look.

"I don't know" Lynne answers shaking her head. "Shirley and Barkhorn have only seen one of them so far so I think it's too soon to tell whether they are invading or not"

"I think that's right" Yoshika tells her. "So far every living thing we've meet so far has tried to kill us on sight, those humans on the bridge and that monster in the basement. I really don't know who the bad guys are and who the good guys are"

"We're caught in the middle…" Lynne begins to say but a presence stops her voice in her throat.

"You two are on lookout duty right" Both Yoshika and Lynne slowly turns their heads with their bodies shaking in fear to see Minna stood behind them.

"Yes ma'am" Both of them reply in a shaky voice.

"Then you should be looking out" Minna tells them. "I see that the Major need to give you some extra drills" Both Lynne and Yoshika gulp at their punishment, Sakamoto's training on a good day kills them, her training as a punishment will destroy them and they both know it. "I suggest you get on with your duty before the Major comes back"

"Yes ma'am" Both of them respond as they run to the window still shaking like a leaf.

Lucchini and Shirley have lookout duty on the other side of the building and Shirley is doing a better then Lynne and Yoshika as she keeps a constant eye out on the street below, she's doing a much better job than Lucchini who's sleeping beside her. Everything's quiet here, too quiet. There's no birds singing, people talking or cars honking that normally fills the city. This city almost feels like it's dead and that feeling sings Shirley, she loved coming to this city and the thought of it dyeing has put her on the verge of tears.

"Is everything ok Shirley?" A gently voice asks, Shirley turns around to see Erica standing behind her.

"Yeah I'm fine Erica" Shirley replies surprised that Erica's not asleep like Lucchini, Erica is normally just as lazy if not more lazier than Lucchini is. "I'm just thinking about what could have happened here to make it so quiet"

"While I must have been something big, I've been to New York once before" Erica say's catching Shirley of guard, she'd never though Erica had been outside of Karlsland before the war. "My grandparents died in the Hindenburg disaster and we stayed in New York during the funnel" Shirley remembers the Hindenburg disaster and looking in Erica's eye's she can see tears forming in them and in that moment Shirley knows Erica must have been close to her grandparents. "The city was so noisy that I couldn't sleep and so crowded that it took for ever to walk down the street"

"Yeah that's the way I remember it too" Shirley says hopping to avoid the topic of Erica's grandparents as she can see Erica on the verge of tears just from mentioning them. "I only been to this city a few times but that is one thing I'd never forget"

"I don't think I'll forget it ever" Erica agrees. "I've never seen such a crowded place before or after"

Eila and Sanya are sat on a pair of folding camping chairs repacking the fire wood to make it easier to carry, they do this in near silence as Sanya is a girl of few words and Eila is mesmerized by the sight of Sanya's pretty pale skin. She's seen Sanya's shin plenty of times before in the bath but still, every time she catches sight of it she can't help but stare. There's something about Sanya that takes her breath away and leaves her heart racing, despite all of the time she's spent with her she's still as nervous around her as on the first day they meet. The way Sanya's eye's sparkly and her skin shines in the moonlight just mesmerizes Eila and stays in her mind for hours.

Sanya feels the same way as Eila does and often she dreams of her and Eila enjoying a privet tea party alone together in a gazebo in the middle of a beautiful field of flowers of all colours and they smell so nice, normally during these dreams Sanya is more confident and tells Eila how she feels and Eila tells her she feels the same way. In these dreams they get closer and closer to each other, flirt and lean in for a kiss. Unfortunately her dream always ends just as their lips are about to meet much to the frustration of Sanya who can't help but look over to Eila's sleeping face and stare at her lips imagining what they would feel like pressed against her own.

"Hey Earth to Sanya" Someone calls and it takes a while for Sanya to realise that it was Eila, she was so caught up thinking about her dream that she didn't hear that Eila has been calling her name for at least two minutes. Her eye's go straight to Eila's lips as she turns to face her, big mistake as the urge to kiss them to feel how they taste, how they feel begins to fill the Orussian's mind. "Are you ok I've been calling you for a while?"

"Yes I'm fine" Sanya replies quickly raising her eyes to meet Eila's before she throws herself on her friend in order to kiss her lips and find out they would feel like against hers. "I was just lost in my thoughts"

"Have something on your mind?" Eila asks with concern in her eyes and voice. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No it's fine I was just thinking about home" Sanya lies, it hurts her to lie like this to Eila but she can't admit what she feels to her. It's times like this when she wishes she was like she is in her dreams, so full of confidence and free of worry, then she would be able to tell Eila how she feels and maybe get a taste of her lips.

Gertrud and Sakamoto return with a route planed and a building to move to. They walk straight up to Minna to report their findings surprised that everyone is on the second floor, looking around they quickly spot where everyone is a catch onto the reason why they are up here. They report to Minna where the building is and how they plan to get there, Minna impressed by their planning summons everyone together to tell them the plan.

Little do they know that someone or something is watching them, listening to them speak as they gather together. A large strong man in a grey suit with sliver lines across it sits on the fire escape using a thermal imaging scope built into his helmet to see them and a built-in microphone to eavesdrop. He's been watch the girls for some time, impressed by the fact that they managed to bring down that Ceph. Even the best soldiers struggle against a Ceph and two girls one of which was unarmed managed to kill one. There's something special about them and he will watch them to find out what that is.


	8. Chapter 8

Sakamoto takes point as she leads the witches down the snow covered street, it was a good thing Minna had waited on the second floor for them as the snow would have made it impossible to open the door. They all had to climb down a fire escape which metal steps froze everyone's feet through their shoes. Once the witches exit the build they regret it, the freezing cold air is twice as cold outside then it was inside and the wind only makes it colder. Nearly as soon as the exit the building the witches shiver and hug themselves for warmth except for Sakamoto and Gertrud who are too disciplined to do so even though they are feeling the cold just as much as the others.

The sky was blue once again overhead and the white clouds that rained down snow like there was no tomorrow disappear without a trace as they slowly leave the sky. The wind is dyeing down and now only blows a cold gentle breeze every few minutes but still that is enough to send a shiver down everyone's spine. The sun starts to shine brightly above everyone's head but is warmth fails to reach anything on the ground and the snow is beginning to freeze and become solid under the witches feet.

Sakamoto leads the witches forward keeping up a quick pace to get everyone to the building before they freeze and to warm up their bodies, Minna is walking just a few steps behind her activating her magic from time to time checking her surroundings making sure they don't walk into an ambush. The rest of the witches walk two by two behind her apart from Lucchini who's hitching a ride on Shirley's back. They walk in silence only breaking it when necessary to keep each other safe and report any suspicious sound or movement. Most of these reports turn out to be nothing, only a bird or rat knocking something over in most cases but something doesn't feel right, Gertrud at the rear of the group keeps hearing the sound of running, jumping and landing behind her but every time she looks she can't see anything or body capable of making those sounds.

"Is something wrong Barkhorn? You've been looking over your shoulder a lot recently" Yoshika asks and she can see a mixture of fear and worry in both hers and Lynne's eye's caused by her behaviour and she can't help but feel guilty for causing it. Maybe because she is a caring person deep down or maybe because Yoshika reminds her of Chris, who knows but whatever it is causing her to feel this guilt but she can't let it show. Emotions are weakness, a soldier mustn't show weakness.

"I'm fine it's just my imagination" Gertrud answers as she walks past the two witches cutting herself off from further questioning.

Erica who was near the rear steps up beside her friend and won't let her go without a truthful answer. She keeps pass with Gertrud's fast feet while Yoshika ad Lynne are left behind, she grips the sleeve of her friends coat and doesn't intend to let go until she got her answer. Gertrud tries to pull her sleeve free but Erica tightens her grip and maintains her hold, she tries to outpace Erica but her friend keeps up. Like it or not she now has to answer her friend's questions and she can only hope the Erica doesn't spot the guilt she is feeling.

"Know you're lying Trude I've known you long enough to know the look you get when you lie" Erica finally says when Gertrud gives up trying to shake her off. "So tell me the truth is there something back there?"

"I don't know" She replies keeping her voice to a whisper so the already scared Lynne and Yoshika don't here. "I hear something moving but when I look there's nothing there"

But there is. The grey suited man has been keeping pace with them by jumping from roof top to roof top. He almost lost them when they left the building. He thought they would have stayed in there and hid instead of bearing the bitter coldness of the street outside. It was the best choice they could have made because as he followed the girls he'd taken out four Ceph Grunts that was moving on the rooftops towards he girls. He took them out quick and quiet using his clock to get close to them and his knife to kill them. The girls below didn't hear a thing and have no idea he's following them but a brown haired girl at the rear is starting to get suspect he's there so he has to hang back a bit and move a lot more slowly than he has been.

The witches reaches the building Sakamoto and Gertrud spotted after ten minutes of walking through the melting snow. The building looked strong and secure, thick stone walls, big heavy metal doors and windows with metal bars on the outside like a prison. This building should prove the witches with enough protection that they can withstand anything that is thrown at them. It's a large building too with four floors meaning the witches have a lot of room to manoeuvre if anything or one gets inside. There is no sign or anything that indicates what this building is for, Shirley and Erica say they can remember this building being here so it can't be that old. Minna uses her magic to check the coast is clear before sending Sakamoto, Gertrud and Eila forward. Even though Minna checked the area he three witches still enter with their weapons raised ready for combat.

The building is dark inside but there enough light to see. The entrance is grand with red carpeted floor and a statue of a lion in the centre of the room. There's a desk with an overturned chair and papers scattered around it, paintings of trees, fields and more movie posters line the wall. The lights in this building are still working coming on as the witches move deeper into the building making them jump as they light everything up. The inside of the building is filled with books with a wide open space in the centre of the room where if you look up you can see the three floors above and the sky through a glass dome. Several staircases lead up to the upper floors and each floor is filled with books. Books on shelves books on the floor and books ripped to pieces, there are books everywhere. It's clear this buildings a library.

They search though the library checking every inch of every floor before returning finding nothing alive inside. When they return the find the rest of the witches already inside standing at the front door with Minna watching the buildings interior and Shirley watching outside. They were all shivering so they must have only just entered the building to escape the cold. It's certainly warmer inside meaning the thick walls must have be good at keeping the heat in and there's several fireplaces around and books to burn so they will have no trouble keeping warm here.

"The buildings safe" Sakamoto reports to Minna as the three re-join the group. "There's a fire place with some cushioned chairs around it upstairs that will be the best place for us to warm up"

"Lead the way, I'm sure we all could use the warmth of a fire right now" Minna replies with a smile on her face brought on by the thought of a warm safe place to rest.

Sakamoto leads the group to the soft chairs and fire place she promised and the walk in the cold was defiantly worth the effort just to reach here. The chairs are long enough to fit four of the witches on each one meaning everyone had a seat, Sanya with the unhelpful help of Eila quickly started a fire with the wood they brought with them in the fire place. The warmth and glow from the fire cheers everyone up and most get lost in the glow of the flames forgetting their current situation completely. The glow of the fire lights up the room as well as warms everyone up, within minutes no one is freezing and Perrine, Minna and Gertrud decide to go find a book to read. They plan on staying here over night to rest and to get moving again in the morning towards Central Park. Erica and Lucchini have fallen asleep with Lucchini resting her head on Shirley's lap and Erica laying down where Minna and Gertrud was sat. All of the witches have gotten into their sleeping bags apart from the three book hunting and are making themselves at home watching the warm glowing movement of the flames.

Lynne and Yoshika snuggle up to each other resulting in stares from the other witches, Sakamoto in disappointment as she sees love as a distraction, Shirley in hope as she always thought those two would make a nice couple and Eila in jealousy as she wishes her and Sanya was that close. Not one of them says anything as they don't want to ruin the moment and breakup the heart-warming scene despite Sakamoto desperately wanting to. Lynne and Yoshika drift off to sleep with the bodies side by side and heads together with smiles on their faces unaware of the others staring.

"They are too close" Sakamoto mutters shaking her head as she looks at Yoshika and Lynne's smiling faces.

"Relax they're just friends Major" Shirley says as she strokes Lucchini's hair. "I'm sure nothing is going on between them even though it's as clear as day that they like each other"

"Yes that the problem" Sakamoto replies in a quiet voice as she turns to face Shirley. "I don't want to see any of them hurt like Minna was, she still cries for Kurt at night whenever something reminds her of him"

"I see your point but if their love is true then there's nothing you can do to stop it from growing" Shirley ells her with a smile on her face. "Anyway they make a cute couple"

Sanya also fell asleep next to Eila but Eila can't as much as she wants to she can't stay next to Sanya with Sakamoto and Shirley speaking about how cute a couple Yoshika and Lynne make. So she carefully stands up and goes for a walk to escape the growing jealousy at Yoshika and Lynne's closeness. She losses herself in the shelves of books not paying attention to where she's going or the books around her, she just wants to be alone with her thoughts for a while. She can't help but think about her and Sanya, would Shirley say they make a cute couple to or will Sakamoto step in a stop their relationship. She understands the Majors reasons, everyone in the squad saw how the death of Kurt nearly destroyed Minna and heard her moan him. But still with her abilities and Sanya's surely they could survive and live happily ever after together. Now all she needs are a deck of Tarot Cards to confirm that.

As she walks back to re-join the group after clearing her head she finds that the book hunting trio has returned with several books and Gertrud, Shirley and Sakamoto are gathered round Minna looking at the book she brought back. She can't see Minna's and Gertrud's faces but from the worried look on Shirley's and Sakamoto's faces it's clear that there's more bad news. She quietly returns to her seat next to the still sleeping Sanya, Sanya must have sensed Eila's return because as soon as she seats down Sanya's head falls down to rest on her lap causing Eila's hear to skip a beat. She looks around the room and finds no one's looking at her. Hey all are ever sleeping or looking at Minna's book apart from Perrine who seems overwhelmed b something and is sat in front of the fire staring into its flame.

"Are you sure what it says is real?" Eila overhears Sakamoto asking and she looks up to see Minna close the book.

"Yes it says it's real and there are a load of other books just like this one where I found it" Minna answers. "Unfortunate as it is it must have happened"

"But that means Karlsland isn't Karlsland and was destroyed" Gertrud says and that one sentence gets Eila's attention. What did she mean by Karlsland is not Karlsland"

"It was beaten not destroyed Trude" Minna tells her. "And from what I read it was for the best"

"Yes it was" Gertrud says sounding disappoint looking at the ground. "I can't believe people from our country would do something like that"

"Well people from Germany and Karlsland may live in the same area but that doesn't mean we are the same people" Minna says putting her hand on Gertrud's shoulder. "And any way that painter never came power in our world so he'll never do that"

"I guess your right" Gertrud replies still sounding depressed as she makes her way to her spot waking Erica up as she does so.

"What's going on and why are you upset Trude?" Erica asks as she sits up and stretches.

"I'll explain everything in a minute but first I think we should wake everyone up so I can tell you all together" Minna tells her.

Sakamoto moves immediately by waking up Lynne and Yoshika something she's been dyeing to do since she saw them sleeping and Shirley moves over to wake up Lucchini to wake her up. Eila soon looks down at her lap and sees Sanya's peaceful sleeping face on her lap and her breath hitches in her throat. Sanya looks so beautiful asleep and event through her legs are covered Eila can still feel the warmth of Sanya's breath on her leg making it tingle. It takes all of Eila's will to wake the sleeping beauty up and she hates herself for doing so but she has to, she gently shakes Sanya's shoulder until she stirs and finally awakes.

"Eila what's happening?" Sanya asks as she wakes up in a quiet sleepy voice.

"Everything will be explained in a minute" Sakamoto says before Eila has a chance to answer.

Minna looks around making sure everyone is awake and listening before she starts to speak. "I don't know how to say this but I have some bad news for everyone. As I was looking for a book I found a row of history books, they were about a war called the Second World War and here where the problem is. The Second World War took place between 1939 and 1945 and it was between humans and not us against the Neuroi" Everyone in the room is shocked at the News apart from those who already looked at the book. "There was no mention of the Neuroi anywhere in this book"

"You're joking right?" Erica asks in disbelief.

"That can't be true" Eila adds. "The Neuroi must be in there"

"There not I gave that book a quick look myself and didn't spot them" Sakamoto say's and coming from her mouth the news sounds more believable. "It appears we are in a parallel world"

"That world also explain why the Liberion flag was different on those soldiers back on the bridge is well" Shirley say's.

"We can't be" Lucchini says sounding on the verge of tears. "If we are then we'll never… make it home"

"Don't worry we will make it home and make it back alive" Shirley says as she hugs Lucchini who is now crying her eyes out.

Just then there's a loud crash from the entrance as the front door slams open. The coldness instantly reaches the witches in on strong gust of air and footsteps soon reach their ears. There's another smash and ropes drop down from the glass dome amongst the falling glass and snow, he footsteps get closer as white figures repel down the ropes.

"They found use everyone get to cover" Minna orders as she and the others dive behind the chairs.


	9. Chapter 9

Four people wearing white armour and helmets repel down and onto the witch's floor and another four come up the stairs blocking the witches escape. Minna, Gertrud and Sakamoto point their guns at the four that repelled down while Shirley and Eila aim at the ones that came up the stairs, the white cloaked soldiers raise and aim their guns at the witches and they wait. They wait in silence as they stare each other down and stare down the barrels of the each other guns. The silence and the passing seconds are unbearably tense and frightful. Every one of the witches nerves are being tested in this silent, potentially deadly standoff. Finally one of the white cloaked men breaks the tense standoff and fires a burst of led towards Minna only missing the top of her head by a hair. After that, after that one small burst of fire all hell breaks loss.

The armed witches return fire before the sound of gun fire fades away. One of the men goes down holding his neck. A bullet ripped through throat and he drops to his knees with his hands desperately trying to stop the blood spraying out of his neck but to no avail, less than a second later he lands face down on the floor dead. Two more men are hit in the opening fire but they somehow get back to their feet and continue on unharmed, one of them did at least as the other receives several bullets through his head from Sakamoto's gun before he could get into cover. The remaining six men get into cover and start to shoot at the witches who return the favour firing just as many bullets back at them.

"Shirley, Eila hold position, Trude, Sakamoto come with me" Minna orders as she advances towards the repelled men. Two of them are already dead giving them an advantage in numbers but this move will leave Eila and Shirley outnumbered two to one. It's a risk she's willing to take, as things are the witches are out flanked so destroying one of these groups must be her probity. Also by destroying the repelled team it puts them in the perfect position to attack the other groups flank. "Everyone else if you can make it to a gun then do so but don't take any unnecessary risks"

"I'm right behind you" Gertrud replies as she fires a burst into the right shoulder of one of the men drawing blood and disabling his right arm. "I got one wounded here"

Sakamoto dives wordlessly into cover beside Minna keeping her gun aimed at the unharmed man ready to kill him when he next sticks his head out before she says. "I got the other one covered"

"Understood" Minna responds with a nod.

Minna slowly and quietly advances towards the uninjured man as her two comrades cover her keeping both men in their sights. She slowly creeps her way towards man counting on the exchange of gunfire by Shirley and Eila with the other group to cover any sound she makes. She gets closer and closer until she's close enough to him where she can hear him breath and she has to hold her breath to stay undetected. She closes in and gets closer and closer to him until she can smell him and feel his warm in this cold library. Now that she's close enough she strikes. She throws her left fist around the corner hitting hard against the side of his thick armour. The man falls to the ground but to achieve this Minna broke one of her fingers against his hard helmet. The man turns over and looks Minna in the eye, his stare full of fear and hers blank of emotion. He reaches down to his hip going for his pistol but Minna doesn't let him use it. She kicks the gun out of his hand before she aims her own and fire a three round burst into his face. Minna may have one the fight but her broken finger and the pain alone is enough to kill her, pulling the trigger didn't help as the force of the recoil sends a wave of pain that makes her eye's water and nearly makes her pass out.

Minna was about to walk back and find Yoshika for treatment when the sound of a gun being cocked reaches her ears and the pressure of a barrel pushes into the back of her head. Minna breaks out in a cold sweat and she has to fight to keep her hands from shaking not wanting the man with the gun to see her weak and afraid. So this is how it ends she thinks as she waits for the bullet that will end her life, this is how it ends. The next thing she hears is the slump of a body hitting the ground, when she turns round to see what happened she finds the man dead at her feet and herself face to face with a grey suited man holding a bloody knife.

She stares into the black line across the man's eye seeing only her reflection. Her eyes quickly move to take in the man, he's strong, tall and the fact that she can't see his face makes him terrifying to Minna. She's had nightmares in the past where a man twice her size stood over her holding a knife to her throat and looking at the bloody knife in his hands gives her flash backs to those dreams and makes her shake in fear. That knife that bloodied Knife in his hands is what scares her the most. It's huge at least eight inches long and the red blood from the man it just ended the life of is still dripping off its steel blade. She what's to thank him for saving her but when she goes to speak no words leave her mouth. She closes her eyes, takes a quick breath and opens them determined to say her thanks but she can't, when she reopens her eyes the man's gone and she's left there wondering if he really was real or if she just imagined him. Only when the pain from her broken finger spreads through her body does she come back to reality and realises where she is and what's happening around her.

"Minna are you ok?" Sakamoto asks as she runs up to her.

"I'm fine" Minna responds looking her friend in the eye before taking a moment to take in the situation around her. "Take Trude and attack their flank, I'll go back to Yoshika for treatment then help Eila and Shirley"

"Yes ma'am" Sakamoto replies as she runs towards Gertrud to tell her about the plan.

Minna makes her way back to the others trying not to draw attention to herself as she moves from cover to cover back the others. The whole time she moves her mind keeps going back to the grey suited guy and her mind starts screaming questions at her demanding answers that she can't possibly know. Who is he? Where did he come from? Where did he go? Why did he save me? Is he friend or foe? This question take over her so much that she doesn't notice she's re-joined the witches by the fire until Lynne and Yoshika runs ups to her.

"Minna are you ok?" Yoshika asks as she runs up to her.

"Yeah I'm fine I just hurt my finger" Minna answers as she gets into cover. "Lynne, Erica, Perrine, Sanya go get a gun off those dead bodies over there, Yoshika can you heal my finger"

"Yes ma'am can I take a look at it?" Yoshika asks and Minna holds up her hand in response. "Ok now I need to set it before I start to heal it, I'm sorry but this is going to hurt"

"Its ok just do it" Minna tells her as she braces herself for the impending pain. Minna takes one deep breath before Yoshika moves her figure into potion sending a wave of pain more powerful and painful than anything she has felt before causing her to yell out in pain. "Ficken fölle""

"Don't worry the worst is over now" Yoshika reassures her with a kind smile as she starts to use her healing magic on Minna's figure. "There good as new"

"Thanks" Minna says as she bends her figure a few times testing it out and making sure its fine.

Once she's confident its ok she turns her attention back the battle. Sakamoto and Gertrud have begun their assault on the men's flank and between them and Shirley and Eila one of the men lays dead on the ground. Lynne and Sanya return with black guns that are very odd looking, the rifles magazines are loaded behind the trigger and they have some sort of sight on the rifles that has a red dot in the middle of a small clear glass plain. Perrine and Erica join Sakamoto and Gertrud and now the witch's fire power starts to take its toll on the men, the three remaining men retreat back down the stairs but one of them doesn't make it and he fails into a hail of bullets turning him into a bloody mess before he hits the ground. But before the witches can relax bullets start to hit all around them forcing the all to die to the ground hugging it for survival as they take fire from somewhere.

"Cloak Deactivated" A metallic voice says as the grey suited man becomes visible.

The grey suited man has gotten behind the two who are now firing at the witches from the other side of the balcony. He was right about something being special about those girl's as they seem to be able to hold their own against C.E.L.L and the Ceph. Now he's determined to help these girl's out so he can ask them a few question's afterwards. He crawls behind the nearest of the two guys with his knife drawn. He moves quickly and slices his knife through the man's throat before turn to the second man who has stopped firing and turning to face him.

"Maximum Strength" The metallic voice says again as it stimulates his muscles temporally making them grow and giving him super human strength.

He kicks the man as hard as he can so hard that he fly's across the room and through the wall landing into the snow covered street below. The cold air enter the building instantly and his suit has to work double time to react to the sudden temperature change so it can maintain his body temperature. Once again he turns to face the girl's and sees that they are all fine and that the two remaining men are trying to make a run for the entrance, unlucky for them that he's in their way. The grey suited man jumps down crushing the rear man under his feet and he drives his knife through his eye to make sure he's dead. He turns to the other man just in time to see his finger pull the trigger and his thumb to switch the gun to full automatic.

"Maximum Armour" The metallic voice announces and his suit turns into a metal like substance.

The Man open fires with every bullet he has in his gun and every bullet meets the same fate, they all bounce of the metal his suit has become without leave so much as a scratch behind. The man fires and fires not stopping once or firing once in controlled burst, meanwhile the grey suited man waits and watches the man waiting for his opportunity to strike. He doesn't have to wait long as within ten seconds of automatic fire the distinct sound of the gun becoming empty, tat click that sends fear through the man's body and mind while it signals the opportunity the grey suited guy has been waiting for has arrived. He charges the man running him through with is knife causing blood pour out of the man's mouth and the life to leave his eyes. Now he can turn his attention to the girls and find out what makes the so special. He turns round to jump up to the balcony while he pulls his knife free fearing that the girls will shoot anything that comes up those steps but when he turns round he's face to face with the redhead he saved and an eye patched women who's got her gun pointed at he's head.

"Who are you?" The eye patched women demands.

"Mio its ok he saved my life so I don't think he wants us dead" The redhead calmly says as she lowers the eye patched women's gun before turning her attention back to the grey suited man. "I'm Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke he commander of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, the Strike Witches and this is my second in command Mio Sakamoto" The women extends her arm towards him. "And you are?"

"Prophet" The grey suited guy replies as he takes her hand and shakes it. "Delta Force commander Raptor Team"

"Where is the rest of your squad then?" Sakamoto asks still maintain a stance like she's ready to fight.

"They each have their own mission and spread out over the city" Prophet tells her. "I can't tell you any more than that without authorization"

"Ok then so s Prophet a codename?" Sakamoto asks again this time more at ease as Minna puts her hand on her shoulder.

"Yes, my real name is classified"

"And whys that?"

"Because the people me and my team takes down are powerful and if they find out who we are hen our family and friends will be in danger"

"Ok then so know that we now about you can you please tell us what is going on here" Minna asks and Prophet has to look at her to see if she's joking.

"How can you not know it's been like tis here for nearly two months?" Prophet asks still trying to work out if it's true or not that she doesn't know what is happen in the city.

"It's a long story" Minna answers and is clear she really doesn't know about anything that's happened in the city. "So can you please tell us?"


	10. Chapter 10

Prophet begins to tell them what happened starting with the rumours of the Manhattan Virus being engineered by the Ceph to be used as a bio weapon. He tells them of the failed treatment and the terrible conclusion the doctors came to declaring there is no cure for the virus, Profit talks about every treatment the doctors tried and of how they failed to treat any of the people infected by the virus. As he tells them this he can see the sadness in both the girls eye's at the news so he decides to keep the total death toll a secret so he does not cause them any more sadness. When he continues to speak he goes on to describe each of the stages of the viruses.

Stage 1: Confusion, feeling nauseous and dizziness.

Stage 2: Rashes with silver liquid pouring from them.

Stage 3: Massive blood loss followed by death.

"That sounds horrible" A voice says from the from the balcony above, Prophet looks up to see the rest of the girl's lined up along the balcony looking down at him and the girl that just spoke. She's a short brown haired girl who looks like she's from Japan, her brown eyes are full of pain making it clear she hates death and destruction. "Why didn't they use magic to heal them?"

"Because magic only exists in stories" Prophet answers causing more strange and confused looks to be thrown his way from both Minna and Sakamoto and the girls on the balcony above.

"Magic does exists, we use it all the time" Minna tells him. "Don't you have witches in your world?"

"Witches? They don't exists and everyone executed for being a witch was never proved to be one" Prophet answers getting more confused looks. "You ladies aren't going to tell me your witches right"

"Well we are witches actually" Sakamoto says but as she was about to open her mouth to say more a large explosion rocks the building and sends the glass in the dome raining down towards Prophet and the two witches.

"Maximum armour" Profit's suit says as he throws himself onto of the two witches as the glass smashes all around them. The glass rains down bouncing off Profits armour with him not receiving so much as a scratch.

"Are you two alright?" Prophet asks as the rain of glass ends and he get up off of the two.

"Yes how did…" Minna begun to ask but another explosion shakes the building and this time Prophet can see a section of the roof cave into the second floor.

"I'll explain later get everyone to the basement, there's a maintenance shaft for the Metro there we can us to escape" Prophet orders and the eye patched women instantly turns round to the others on the balcony and begins to bark out orders.

"Everyone down here now!" She orders before turning back to face Profit. "How do we get to the… To the basement" She asks being interrupted by another ground shaking explosion. This time it happens at the front door shattering it and sending fragments towards the trio, Minna reacts before Sakamoto and Prophet has a chance too and raises her shield blocking or shattering the fragments of wood flying towards them. "Good job Minna"

"Thanks" She replies lowing her shield. "Now which way to the basement?"

"Through that door" Prophet answers pointing towards a small wooden door behind a desk.

"Got it" Sakamoto says as the other girls join them. "Everyone follow me"

With that Sakamoto leads the witches through the wooden door and down the concert stairs descending to safety. Prophet is the last person to leave following Minna as another explosion shakes the building causing a part of the top floor balcony to fall down crashing to earth where he and the two girls were just standing. He follows Minna deeper and deep until the stairs come to an end and they find themselves in the basement which the Library has turned into an archive. From down here when the next explosion comes they don't even feel or hear it, the only way they know it happened is because dust falls down from the ceiling.

Down here the room is poorly lit and the only light source comes from two flickering bulbs, make that one bulb as the other just blow when another explosion sends a layer of dust down onto the group. There is nothing here expect for rows of filing cabinets and a few piles of paper left on top of them, the room is becoming eerier and eerier as the more dust fills the air diming the already dim flickering light. At least it's easy to find the maintenance shaft as its clearly labelled and the only other door down here in this dust filled dark room. Gertrud instantly moves to open the door revelling a steel ladder that descends into a black void.

They climb down one by one into the black void below where there is no light. The witches start to stumble blindly around in the darkness whereas Profit switches his Visor to the night vision mode allowing him to see perfectly will. Looking around the room he could almost laugh at what was happening, a young black haired girl has the short brown haired girl by the breasts, a blond hair girl is jumping at every sound a group of rats make by her feet and Minna is spinning round in circles with her hands out in front of her probable looking for a light switch. Using his night vision Profit finds the light switch and flips it on ruining the black haired girls plan to sneak up and grope a strong looking brown haired girl wearing a WW2 Luftwaffe uniform.

Everyone is keeping their distance from the giant man stood before them, the only ones getting close to him are Minna and Sakamoto though the latter is still keeping her finger on the trigger. Minna on the other hand seems to feel safe around him and hasn't even switched the safety off on her gun. Minna and Sakamoto are deep in conversation with the man but Yoshika, Lynne and Erica are too busy in their own conversation to hear what they are talking about.

"How come they don't have witches?" Yoshika asks sounding depressed.

"You heard Minna, we're in a different universe" Erica answers sound like she doesn't have a care in the world and what's happen around her is a daily occurrence. "Different world, different time, different country names and no Neuroi or witches"

"She's right Yoshika" Lynne agrees putting her hands on Yoshika's shoulder. "If we are really in another world magic, witches and warlocks might not exist here"

"Well that's too bad I bet healing magic could have saved a lot of people who were infected" She replies looking and sounding even more depressed then before.

"Yeah I'm sure it would have but you shouldn't get upset over something that was out of you control" Lynne tells her placing her ever hand on Yoshika's other shoulder and looking her friend in her tear filled eye's.

"But… So many people died" Yoshika says letting out a small sob and hugging Lynne so tightly it nearly brakes her friends back.

"I think you two need to be left alone for a little while" Erica says as she watches Yoshika's face disappear between Lynne's large breasts. "As much as I want to I don't think it will feel right watch yours and Yoshika's first time"

"What do you…? NO WAIT! We are… We" Lynne replies going red in the face and hers eyes lighting up with alarm. "We aren't like that"

"Keep telling yourself that" Erica almost sings as she walks away. "It's clear to the rest of us how much you love each other"

Erica practical skips away feeling happy that she said what she said. As she left the two she looked over her should and saw Lynne looking lovingly at Yoshika still with her face between Lynne's breasts. "Maybe now something will happen between them" She thinks as she looks at the couple confident that her last words will finally push one of them to confess their feelings. She walks over to Shirley who's whipping Lucchini's nose which is pouring blood like there's no tomorrow.

"What happened her?" Erica asks stepping up beside them almost slipping in the small pool of blood which has accumulated below the Young witch.

"Your tight ass friend hit her" Shirley answered not sounding too happy with Gertrude. "I don't know way she would go so far as to hit her"

"If she snuck up on her then I can see her doing it" Erica replies trying to figure out why her friend and wingmen would do something like this. "She will hit anyone who sneaks up on her"

"While Lucchini did try to use the darkness to grope her" Shirley tells her sounding a little less upset.

"And I would have got her too if that stranger didn't flip the light on" Lucchini says sounding more disappointed in the fact she failed to grope Gertrude rather than the fact that she's hurt and bleeding out. "Who is that guy anyway?"

"Don't know but I think I heard Minna say he saved her life back at the library" Erica replies taking another look at the man.

Meanwhile Eila and Sanya are sat down with Sanya practically on Eila's lap as they wait to be told what to do. Eila is over moon she can't believe how close she is to Sanya right now. This like one of her dreams she had, her and Sanya sitting just like they are now under an apple tree in the middle of the most perfect field. Everything in her dreams were perfect, the sky, the weather and the scenery, everything even how well their dates would go. Then it will end, her dreams would end just as it was about to get good. Their lips would be millimetres away from kissing, so close that Sanya's breath would make her own lips tingle. But, just as their lips were she'll wake up with her lips still tingling from Sanya's breath and anticipation of Sanya's lips on hers.

"Where do you think we're going now?" Sanya asks in her usual sweet quiet voice that would make Eila's heart skip a beat every time she hears it.

"I don't know" Eila answers running one of her hands through Sanya's pretty silver hair that Eila normal can't keep her eyes off. She can't believe this is happening. Sanya's letting her run her hand through her hair. This almost feels like as dream which scare Eila more than anything because she wants this moment to be real. "I hope it's somewhere warm as we left our blankets back their… And our food"

"I still have a chocolate bar if you want some" Sanya says rummaging through her pocket and pulling out a Bounty.

"I would actually I'm starved" Eila replies with a small smile which Sanya returns nearly stopping Eila's heart at how beautiful she looks smiling back at her.

"Here you go" Sanya says opening up the wrapper and placing one of the two bars on Eila's hand before she puts the other bar in her own mouth.

"This is good" Eila says biting into the chocolate bar and savouring the taste that floods her mouth. "Its coconut right"

"I think so I never had coconut before so I can't tell you" Sanya tells her. "But if it is then I must like coconuts because it was delicious"

"Yeah I must too because I like the taste is well" Eila says after swallowing the last of her bar. "I make sure we get some more next time we see them"

"That will be good" Eila replies with another sweet small smile nearly overwhelming Eila with its beauty alone. Their eye's meet in this moment causing Eila's breath to hitch and heart to pond so hard it's a miracle that her ribs haven't broken yet. They stare, stare into each other's eyes for what feels like an eternity in complete silence. The only sounds they can her is each other's breathing and the beats of their own hearts.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything" Erica's says breaking the silence causing Sanya to blush and Eila to stare hatred towards the Karlslander. Erica seems unfazed by this and just stares back giving them a knowing look. "I smelt chocolate and wanted to have some"

"Your too late we ate it already" Eila tells her causing Erica to frown but an unnerving smile soon replaces it.

"So did you too feed each other or…" Erica begins to ask making a kissing sound before continuing. "Did you put the chocolate in your mouth and pass it to each other that way" That does it, both Sanya and Eila goes bright red and stare straight at the floor. "You two are as bad as Yoshika and Lynne are at confessing, I'll leave you two alone now"

Erica walks away and straight to her friend Trude who's looking pissed off at something, probable at Lucchini's attempt to grope her. She knows her friend doesn't like to be groped, snuck up on and Lucchini's tendency to do both but still to hit her was a bit too harsh even for her. Normal Trude would only push her off so hearing she hit her is unexpected and shocking, she still doesn't want to believe it's true but she's seen the evidence and heard from Shirley which tells her it is true. Something must be bothering her friend and now that she's helped the two couples she's off to help her friend.

"Hey Trude what's up with hitting Lucchini?" Erica asks getting only a shrug in response. "Come on Trude tell me because that really wasn't like you"

"I'm still on edge from that monster in the basement alright" Gertrud finally snaps back.

"Calm down Trude that things dead and there's not another monster in sight" Erica tells her trying her best to calm her down. This isn't something she's good at as she's often the one winding her up so her attempts fail as Gertrud grunts in response. She was about to say something else but Minna loudly clearing her throat stops her and every one of the witches turn their attention to her.

"Ok everyone before I explain the plain I think an introduction is in order" Minna says as the strange man steps forward. "This is Prophet and he's willing to help us reach a lab run by Dr. Nathan Gould where we should be safe"

"It's nice to meet you all" Prophet says and one by one the witches introduce themselves.

"Now that that's out of the way here's the plan" Minna says gaining back the attention of everyone. "We are going to follow the tracks again to the nearest stop before we reach the lab then walk on foot from there"

* * *

><p><strong>Note<strong>

**The Manhattan Virus stages are a mixture of my own imagination and information from the Crysis Wiki.**

* * *

><p><strong>I wish you happy new year and hope you enjoy this chapter, continue to enjoy this story and my other stories.<strong>

**Let me know what you think of my stories and if there is anything you want changed or to happen as I'm always open to ideas and suggestion also let me know if you spot any mistakes, I try to catch them but some slip through so let me know if you spot any and I will correct them as soon as possible.**

**I want to make my chapters for the new year the best yet and with your help I know I can do so please review and let me know your thoughts so I can achieve this goal.**


	11. Chapter 11

The tunnels are pitch black, only Prophet using night vision and Sanya who's eyes are used to the dark are able to see. The rest of the witches stumble along constantly tripping over the tracks and walking into each other. Walking at the front a few steps ahead of the girls hearing every trip and collision Prophet can only imagine the comedy happening right behind him. He knew the tunnels were dark and the girls would be blind but not once did he envision how bad they would be navigating in the darkness. Because of this its taking a lot longer then he anticipated and their progress is as slow and only getting slower.

He looks back to see most of the girls walking around with ever their hands held in front of them or the holding the hands of the girl stood next to them. They all look totally lost in the dark apart from Sakamoto who's walking with her eyes shut trusting her other senses and Sanya who looks at home in the dark. The complete opposite of the young girl Lucchini who looks terrified and is snapping her head from side to side whilst keeping a tight grip on the bottom of Shirley's coat. Shirley seem to notice how afraid the young girl is as her arm wraps around the girls shoulder hugging her tightly.

He turns back to face down the track and almost as soon as he does several figures are stood in front of the group. Prophet can tell their not Ceph as they are too small, they can be C.E.L.L as they aren't equipped with any sort of fire arm. They must be survivors, they are armed not with guns. One of them has a fire axe, two have meatal poles and five are holding a large rock in each hand. Something doesn't seem right with these people, they aren't walking around like normal people do, and they are walking around like they are drunk. They aren't' talking and more alarming as Prophet zooms in his Visor on the group they aren't even breathing. The temperature down here alone should mean that he can see clouds of breath coming from their mouths but nothing, not even a single puff of a cloud emerges from their lips. Looking at them he stops in his tracks and puts his arms out to stop Minna and Sakamoto from walking past him.

"What is it?" Minna asks as she bumps into his out stretched arm.

"There's a group of people up ahead" He tells her not taking his eyes off the group. "There's something wrong about them"

"Are they a threat?" Sakamoto asks him.

"I don't know" Prophet replies and as he does all of the group ahead seems to notice their presence and turn towards them. "They are armed and know we are here"

"Trude, Shirley get up here Eila take Sanya and watch our rear" Minna orders looking over her shoulder as she does.

"What's going on?" Gertrud asks as she and Shirley with Lucchini still attached to her step up behind Minna.

"Prophet sees people up ahead" Minna answers looking back out in front of her. "They are armed and it's unclear whether or not they are a threat"

"How close are they are can't see a thing" Shirley asks straining her eyes to try a see ahead of her.

"Five hundred meters" Prophet replies grabbing a flare from his belt. "I have one flare left we could us but it's my last one so we'll be fighting in the dark if we run into another threat down her"

"Use it" Minna tells him after thinking it over for a few seconds.

Prophet pulls the string on the bottom of the fare causing a red glowing light to rapidly brighten and light up the tunnel. He then throws it down the tunnel towards the group of people, when it reaches and lights them up he's in for a surprise. All of the people have silver an almost metal like substance covering their mouths, eyes, ears and noises. Their eyes are dark red clearly seen against the silver surrounding them. They stare with their red eyes a Prophet and the girls for a few seconds before with on loud ear busting scream they charge sprinting full speed towards the girls and Prophet. They charge with their weapons raised screaming like a berserker straight towards them, Prophet raises his pistol aiming for the leading man's chest. He pulls the trigger twice in quick succession planting two bullets in the man's chest right where his heart is. The man doesn't stop though, he leans backwards as the force of the bullets hit him but he quickly rights himself and continues the charge with his axe raised high. Prophet quickly fires again and this time his bullet rips straight through his head, this time the man falls to the ground and doesn't get back up.

The witches open fire as soon as the man's body hit the ground, they fire in short burst bringing down the next person who turns out to be a women whose hair is stained silver and wielding a large stone in each hand. But like the man before her she gets right back up to her feet and charges once again despite the bullet holes dominating her chest. But she doesn't make it far as Prophet shoots her between the eyes, he looks around and sees the remaining six still charging and four more silver stained people have joined them jumping down onto the track from a station up ahead.

"What the fuck are they?" Shirley shouts as the women fall to the ground.

"I don't know but aim for their heads it's the only way that seems to sop them" Prophet replies as he brings down an elderly gentleman whose charging him with a large metal pole.

"Sanya says we got about thirty more just over a thousand meters away heading straight for us!" Eila shouts from the rear.

"Great we're being sandwiched" Shirley says to herself.

"We can't stay in these tunnels everyone push through the ones up front and to the station" Minna orders as she takes a few steps forward. "Trude, Erica, Sakamoto take point. Prophet can you go with them"

"Sure" Prophet replies before blowing the brains out of a little kid whose ran straight at him holding a knife high above his head.

"Lynne go to the rear and help Sanya and Eila, follow Sanya's instructions as she knows where they are" Minna orders and Lynne runs back to the rear followed closely behind by Yoshika. "Everyone else follow a few meters behind the lead group and be ready to support them"

The witches and Prophet quickly move into formation and advance guns blazing towards the station, another two of those things that were once people are killed instantly with a third seconds later. The remaining hostels continue to charge but are quickly brought down one by one. In less than a minute the lead group reaches the edge of the station and he last of those silver stained people are dead. Gertrud is the first to step foot on the platform and she nearly vomits at the sight she sees. Five of those silver stained people are ripping apart a young red haired girl that looks fie at the most, they are ripping her limbs from her body and devouring her flesh.

In a very rare moment Gertrud losses her cool and runs at the group of cannibals summoning her familiar as she runs. She fires a burst of led into the closet one's head getting the attention of the others, she would have fired more bullets but her gun clicks empty after her first burst. Instead of reloading she flips her gun round so that she's gripping the barrel and turns it into a club. She smashes the skull of a teenager about her own age causing her neck to snap and her head to twist round one hundred and eighty degrees. She quickly moves on slams her rifle into the side of a police man's head smashing is skull and sending blood splattering everywhere, as her rifle smashes his skull and gets coated in his blood it snaps in half. But even this doesn't stop her attack she kicks a young lady so hard she fly's across the room before she stabs the ramming man with the barrel of her gun, driving it straight through the top of his head so deeply that it sticks out of his chin. She goes to the dead police officers belt and draws his pistol determined to finish off the lady she sent flying but she doesn't get a chance as a bullet from Prophets supressed pistol ends her life.

"Trude what the hell are you thinking?" Sakamoto angrily asks as she storms over to the now blood soaked witch.

"Um I think I know" Erica says getting between Sakamoto and her friend nodding towards the dead girl.

"Oh I see" Sakamoto comments before walking over to Minna as she and the middle group set foot on the platform.

Once everyone is safely on the platform Minna takes charge once again. "Sanya how far are the ones behind us?"

"About five hundred meters" Sanya quietly answers. "But twelve more have joined their group and eight hundred meters in the other direction there are sixty three charging towards us"

"One hundred and five in total" Sakamoto says shaking her head. "I don't think we have enough ammo to fight a group that size"

"We don't we need to group back up to the surface and barricade them down here somehow" Minna concludes before turning to Prophet. "How far are we to the lab?"

"About two more stops away" Prophet answers. "If you want to trap them down here than there's a metal gate we can close at the stations entrance. We'll have to find a way to lock it but it should hold against them"

"Ok let's do it" Minna says. "Same formation as last time"

Prophet walks ahead of the others on the lookout for any sign of danger. He leads the way up until he reaches the metal gate where he waits till the last girl leaves joined by Minna. Once everyone is through he closes the gate, looking around he can only see one thing to use to lock the gate, the metal railing for the stairs.

"Maximum strength" The metallic voice in his suit says.

After his strength has been increased he grips the railing and snaps it off. He then takes the railing and bends it around the gate tying it in a way that the gate won't open up easily. As soon as the gates secure the first silver stained persons crashes against the gate quickly followed by a second than a third, fourth fifth. They keep coming until the gate is bending by the sheer weight of the bodies pressed against it, the sound of their screams are deafening and more concerning the sounds of the metal gate bending are alarming.

"The gate won't hold them for long" Prophet says as the first bolt snaps off the gate.

"Which way to the lab?" Minna asks as she and Prophet step onto the street.

"This way" Prophet answers as he points up the streets and the sound of the second bolt snapping can be heard.

* * *

><p><strong>Note<strong>

**That's the final stag of the Manhattan Virus zombies. I was watching the first Resident ****Evil film before writing this and the idea of zombies is stuck in my head. Let me know what you think about them.**


End file.
